Apple keys a late-day rebound

Updated: 8:35 p.m. ET

Stocks opened October with a nice rally. Today, on the second day of the month, the market finished basically unchanged after a rebound kicked in around 3 p.m. ET.

The rebound tracked a recovery in shares of Apple (AAPL), which had fallen to as low as $650.05 but recovered to $661.31, up $1.92.  The $650 level has emerged as a very important support level for Apple shares.

Apple's rebound helped the Nasdaq Composite Index ($COMPX) and the Nasdaq-100 Index ($NDX) end the day with decent gains. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($NDX) also finished in the black. Also giving the market support: Auto sales ran at a seasonally adjusted 14.9 million units in September, the best sales rate since March 2008.

In addition, shares of MetroPCS Communications (PCS) finished up $2.05 to $13.57, tops among S&P 500 stocks, on reports that Deutsche Telekom's (DTEGY) T-Mobile USA was planning to acquire the mobile phone company, with a deal announced possibly on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrials ($INDU) did close down 33 points to 13,482, but the blue chips had been down as many as 90 points. The S&P 500 closed up 1 point to 1,446, and the Nasdaq was up 7 points to 3,120. The Nasdaq-100 added 5 points to 2,799.

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Google (GOOG) hit a new intraday high of $765.99 but fell back to $756.99, down $4.79.

Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) was off $13.17 to $302.96 after investor David Einhorn told a New York investment conference that the company was vulnerable to pricing pressures from rival Taco Bell. Einhorn also told the Value Investment Conference that he was betting on  General Motors (GM) as a stock that was cheap.

The recovery came despite disappointment that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said a request for rescue funds for his country was "not imminent." Spanish bonds and stocks had rallied in anticipation of a bailout request that would pave the way for the European Central Bank to buy the nation’s debt.

There was some cheer from a report that U.S. home prices saw their biggest year-on-year jump in August in six years, more evidence that the market recovery has gained traction.

Data provider CoreLogic reported a 0.3% gain in prices in August, to take the year-on-year jump to 4.6%.

Wednesday brings the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's Sept. 12-13 meeting as well as the Institute for Supply Management's services index for September. In addition, ADP will release its September report on private-sector job growth.

Futures trading suggests a flat open.

A good September for auto sales
The auto sales in September were quite solid -- especially for non-U.S. companies.

Total deliveries to dealers were up 7% from August and 12% from September 2011.  Toyota (TM), Honda Motor (HMC), Kia and Subaru reported sales gains of 30% or more from a year ago. The gains were due in part to recovery from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Toyota's sales of some 172,000 were just below those of Ford Motor (F). Ford sold 175,878 vehicles, up 1% from a year ago. Lower truck sales offset gains for small cars.

General Motors sales were up slightly. Chrysler sales were up 11.8% from a year ago. Volkswagen (VLKAY) sales were up 41% from a year ago.

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The market is waiting . . .
The market has been trading in a narrow range for several weeks. There was talk today that traders are waiting for the start of the third-quarter earnings season, which starts after Tuesday's close when Dow component Alcoa (AA) reports. Alcoa was off 6 cents to $8.85.

But there may be some reluctance to make big moves ahead of Wednesday's presidential debate in Denver.

Energy prices -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Crude oil (-CL)			$91.89			$92.48			-0.33%			-7.02%
(per barrel)
Heating oil (-HO)			$3.1255			$3.1358			-1.07%			7.25%
(per gallon)
Natural gas (-NG)			$3.5310			$3.4800			6.36%			18.13%
(per mil. BTU)
Unleaded gasoline (-RB)			$2.8692			$2.9201			-1.74%			7.97%
(per gallon)
Brent crude			$111.57			$112.19			-0.73%			3.90%
(per barrel)
Retail gasoline			$3.7800			$3.7820			-0.18%			15.38%
(per gallon; AAA)

Crude oil and gold move lower
Crude oil in New York was down 17 cents to $92.31 a barrel in New York. Brent crude was off 28 cents to $111.91.

The national average price of gasoline was $3.78 a gallon, down from Monday's $3.782 a gallon, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

Gold (-GC) settled down $7.70 to $1,775.60 an ounce in New York. Silver (-SI) fell 28.3 cents to $34.669 an ounce. Copper (-HG) settled up 1.55 cents to $3.801 a pound.

A defensive day
This was a day where defensive stocks -- utilities, health care and telecom stocks -- were the market leaders.

Only 10 of the 30 Dow stocks was higher, led by Chevron (CVX), newcomer UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and Microsoft (MSFT), the publisher of MSN Money.

The Dow's losses were concentrated in six stocks: DuPont (DD), McDonald's (MCD), Procter & Gamble (PG), IBM (IBM), American Express (AXP) and Boeing (BA), all of which have significant exposure to Europe.

Meanwhile, 285 S&P 500 stocks were higher, led by MetroPCS, First Solar (FSLR) and Wellpoint Health Networks (WLP). The laggards were Sprint Nextel (S) -- a reaction to the MetroPCS  news -- Chipotle and J.C. Penney (JCP).

The fourth worst performer was fertilizer Mosaic (MOS), down $2.25 to $55.76 after fiscal-first-quarter​ results missed Street estimates. The company insisted the miss was due to dealers delaying purchases until they have a clearer picture of farmer planting intensions.

Fifty-nine Nasdaq-100 stocks were higher, led by BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIMM) and chip-maker SanDisk (SNDK).

Short hits from the markets -- New York close
			Tues.			Mon.			Month chg.			YTD chg.
Treasury yields
13-week Treasury bill			0.0900%			0.080%			0.00%			800.00%
5-year Treasury note			0.614%			0.620%			-2.54%			-26.02%
10-year Treasury note			1.615%			1.625%			-1.34%			-13.68%
30-year Treasury bond			3.032%			3.032%			0.00%			4.95%
Currencies
U.S. Dollar Index			79.83			79.909			-0.24%			-0.86%
British pound			1.6142			1.6137			-0.11%			3.89%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in pounds			£0.620			£0.620			0.11%			-3.74%
Euro in dollars			$1.29			$1.29			0.67%			-0.13%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. $ in euros			€ 0.773			€ 0.776			-0.67%			0.13%
U.S. $ in yen			78.19			78.00			0.28%			1.41%
U.S. $ in Chinese			6.31			6.28			0.45%			-0.26%
yuan
Canada dollar			$1.017			$1.019			0.07%			3.71%
(in U.S. $)
U.S. dollar			$0.984			$0.982			0.00%			-3.58%
(in Canadian $)
Commodities
Gold (-GC)			$1,775.60			$1,783.30			0.10%			13.33%
(per troy ounce)
Copper (-HG)			$3.801			$3.786			1.14%			10.62%
(per pound)
Silver (-SI)			$34.6690			$34.9520			0.27%			24.19%
(per troy ounce)
Wheat (-ZW)			$8.7150			$8.8425			-3.43%			33.51%
(per bushel)
Corn (-ZC)			$7.5825			$7.568			0.26%			17.29%
(per bushel)
Cotton			$0.7185			0.712			1.70%			-21.63%
(per pound)
Coffee			$1.8365			1.7805			5.85%			-20.03%
(per pound)
Crude oil (-CL)			$91.89			$92.48			-0.33%			-7.02%
(per barrel)