US stocks rose for a fourth straight session in New York yesterday, with a sudden flurry of mergers adding to the optimism created by last week's cut in Federal Reserve interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 49.62 points - or by 0.6 per cent - at 8,466.45 after retreating from a 98-point gain that put the blue-chip barometer above 8,500 for the first time since before the late August sell-off.

The Standard and Poor's 500 rose 5.98 to 1,062.40, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index rose 27.78 to 1,648.73.

NYSE volume totalled 714.79 million shares, down from 1.020 billion at the same point on Friday.