Wall Street stocks edged higher in another calm session but the Dow Jones industrial average faltered just as it was completing a recovery from last week's bruising tumble.

The Dow bounced back from an early 25-point deficit and rose as much as 76 points, but retreated over the final hour to finish just 3.44 points higher at 7,692.57.

The blue-chip barometer is now just 23 points shy of where it was before its 554-point plunge on Monday last week, but is still more than 300 points down from where the it stood before the financial turmoil in south-east Asia boiled over two weeks ago.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index, a popular benchmark for mutual funds, managed to hold enough of a gain to wipe out the remaining damage from last week's slide.

Technology shares posted only slim gains despite a strong profit report from Cisco Systems.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by seven to five on the New York Stock Exchange.