Share prices in New York survived a midday retreat and ended higher as investors worked to recover last week's losses and headed towards a quieter, Christmas week. The Dow Jones average of 30 industrial stocks rose 63.02 points to close at 7,819.31.

Stocks shot up as the market opened and appeared to be on the way to erasing the losses of the previous session. But by midday, shares had given up most of their gains. Investors appeared to rethink their early exuberance and reacted instead to another rocky showing in Asia. Tokyo's Nikkei stock average fell 3.4 per cent, dropping below the 15,000-point mark for the first time since July 1995.

Broad-market indexes showed modest improvement across the board. The technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index followed the broader market with an early rally, a dip, and an afternoon rebound.

Analysts said much of Monday's activity was a reaction to Friday's extraordinary volatility.