NEW YORK, USA - Wall Street ended higher in hesitant trade Monday after a surprise profit reported by Ford Motor Co. and a strong factory sector survey boosted sentiment after last week's drubbing.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 73.31 points (0.75 per cent) to 9,786.04 at the closing bell, coming off a 2.6 per cent slide for the blue-chip index last week.

The Nasdaq composite eked out a gain of 4.09 points (0.20 per cent) to 2,049.20 and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 6.29 points (0.67 per cent) to a preliminary close of 1,042.48.

Trading action was choppy, as the indexes swung between gains and losses but with a mostly positive bias.

Market sentiment was helped by news ahead of the bell of Ford's third-quarter profit of 997 million dollars on improvement in its North American business, and comments that it was on track to become 'solidly profitable.'

Douglas McIntyre at 24/7 Wall Street called the earnings at the number two automaker 'a little miracle.'

'Almost no one thought Ford could make money in North America ' except Ford,' he said.

Gains accelerated after the Institute of Supply Management said its purchasing managers index of the factory sector rose to a stronger-than-expected 55.7 per cent, suggesting stronger growth in manufacturing.

'The report suggests that the US manufacturing sector picked up considerable steam in October,' said Millan Mulraine at TD Securities.

'Moreover, given the fairly good performance of this indicator in predicting the performance of the US economy more generally, it is pointing to further upward momentum in US economic activity.'