Photo: The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette

North American markets recovered from their early morning losses Monday to close in positive territory in spite of falling crude oil prices.

The S&P/TSX composite index was up 79 points at 20,180.60.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average closed up 151.39 points at 33,912.44. The S&P 500 index was up 16.99 points at 4,297.14, while the Nasdaq composite closed up 80.86 points to 13,128.05.

The Canadian dollar traded for 77.47 cents US compared with 78.23 cents US on Friday.

The September crude contract was down US$2.68 at US$89.41 per barrel and the September natural gas contract was down four cents at US$8.73 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was down US$17.40 at US$1,798.10 an ounce and the September copper contract was down five cents at US$3.62 a pound.