US stocks staged a late recovery in a choppy day's trading on Wall Street.

After a terrible day for US shares on Monday, there was relief on Tuesday that the fall had been stemmed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Index of leading shares ended up almost 17 points at 9,133.54.

The technology-based Nasdaq index also roared back jumping 54.34 points, and recapturing most of the ground it lost on Monday.

However there was a disappointing response to the historical merger of oil heavyweights Exxon and Mobil. the biggest corporate marriage in history.

Declining issues led advances by a thin margin on an active day of trading.

"After moving up several thousand points from the October loss, the market needs to digest here," said Dick Stein, vice president and chief technical analyst at Noble International Investments.

Monday's downturn was the first real wave of profit-taking since the stock market rebound began almost two months ago.