NEW YORK - WALL Street struggled to a mixed finish on Monday, as a better-than-expected survey on the US services sector helped offset pessimism from last week's grim unemployment report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed early weakness and rose 43 points (0.52 per cent) to 8,323.74 at the closing bell.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite however fell 9.18 points (0.51 per cent) to 1,787.34 while the Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index edged up 2.12 points (0.24 per cent) to a preliminary close of 898.54.

The market opened weaker, in an extension of the downward momentum from last week, when the market was stunned by a weaker-than-expected report on US nonfarm payrolls, which fell by 467,000 in June.

But investors appeared to warm to a survey by the Institute of Supply Management on the services sector that was better than expected.

The index rose to 47 per cent, which is below the level of 50 that indicates growth but ahead of analysts expectations for the key sector.

'The overall message from the ISM index for services industries in June is that the economy is gradually pulling out of the recession in a slow-motion type of process, but there are still significant headwinds,' said Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight. -- AFP