YAHOO [BRIEFING.COM]: An early selling effort dropped stocks from an initial gain to a loss of more than 1%, but stocks gradually made their way back to positive ground before falling under a second wave of selling pressure. Although they finished the session with a loss, stocks still logged impressive gains for the month.

Better-than-expected earnings from several companies, including Nike (NKE 64.70, +4.61) and Jabil Circuit (JBL 13.41, +1.13) helped prop up the bias in the broader market this morning. The tone of trade improved further from news that second quarter GDP was revised upward to show an annualized decline of 0.7%, which is better than the 1.2% annualized decline that had been expected.

The GDP headline overshadowed the latest ADP Employment Change Report, which indicated that 254,000 private jobs were lost during September. Since that is worse than the consensus forecast for 200,000 job losses, some wonder whether the government's official nonfarm payrolls report on Friday will be worse than expected.

Despite early signs of strength, stocks reversed direction in the first few minutes of trade. The slide was exacerbated by news that the Chicago PMI reading for September came in at 46.1, below the consensus forecast of 52.0 and down from the previous reading of 50.0.

Within the first hour of trading the S&P 500 saw a modest gain turn into a loss of 1.3%. However, buyers waded back into the action and helped stocks turn their losses into a midday gain. The rally was challenged, though, as the S&P 500 failed to push through its opening highs.

Tech had been a primary source of support for the midsession advance, but renewed selling pressure in the second half of the session left the sector to finish with a mere 0.2% gain. Semiconductor stocks were able to hold on to a near 0.9% gain, however.

Materials stocks had also provided leadership as commodities prices soared. Though the sector faltered and finished with a 0.5% loss, the CRB Commodity Index jumped 2.9% in its best single-session percentage gain in nearly two months.

The CRB's impressive performance came as bullish gasoline inventory data helped underpin a 5.7% gain by crude oil prices, which settled at $70.49 per barrel. Meanwhile, gold prices shot up a strong 1.5% to settle at $1009.50 per ounce.

The strong performance by commodities helped give the CRB Commodity Index a 0.6% gain for September and a 3.8% gain for the third quarter.

Though stocks finished September on a rather dour note, the S&P 500 was still able to book a monthly gain of 2.7% and a quarterly gain of 14.9%, which is the second best quarterly performance for the S&P 500 this decade. The best quarter came in the second quarter of this year, when the stock market advanced 16.7%.

With the end of the quarter at hand, investors and portfolio managers drove trading volume in the NYSE sharply higher as they juggled their portfolios. In turn, nearly 1.8 million shares traded hands on the NYSE. That's the second highest single-session tally this month. 

Advancing Sectors: Technology +0.2%, Consumer Staples +0.2%
Declining Sectors: Industrials -0.9%, Utilities -0.9%, Energy -0.5%, Materials -0.5%, Health Care -0.5%, Financials -0.5%, Consumer Discretionary -0.4%, Telecom -0.3%DJ30 -29.92 NASDAQ -1.62 NQ100 +0.1% R2K -1.0% SP400 -0.6% SP500 -3.53 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 996/2.67 bln/1704 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 1257/1.77 bln/1757