The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average leapt 114.61 points (1.39 per cent) to 8,383.25 in early trades.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 17.53 points (1.04 per cent) to 1,697.67 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 11.22 points (1.27 per cent) to 894.10.

The action came after moderate losses on Friday that had capped a week in which the broad market fell nearly five percent, snapping a streak of eight gains over the past nine weeks for Wall Street's main indexes.

'Market action says folks are looking for the economy to bottom out within the next several months and then be doing moderately better by year-end,' said Al Goldman at Wachovia Securities. -- AFP