Traders struggled to bolster their confidence after bad news hit Wall Street in early trading overnight, Australian time.

Consumer confidence in the US hit a five year low yesterday and house prices in the US continued to fall sharply.

Consumer spending accounts for about 70 per cent of the US economy.

And the Dow Jones industrial index was more than 100 points down, at one time, early in the day.

However, confidence returned and the index closed just 16.04 points, or 0.13 per cent  down ay 12,532.60 points, at the close of trading.

High tech stocks helped.  Indeed the tech heavy NASDAQ index closed 14.3 points higher at 2,341.05.

The S&P 500 also rose – slightly – on the day. It closed 3.11 points higher at 1,352.99.

These developments followed a week of generally rising share prices.

Analysts said traders now seems eager to put a floor under the market.