Oracle drives Wall Street higher; volume stays weak

Wall Street advanced for a third straight day, giving the S&P its best weekly performance since early February, but volume remained light as global uncertainty persisted.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 50.03 points, or 0.41 percent, to 12,220.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 4.14 points, or 0.32 percent, to 1,313.80. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.64 points, or 0.24 percent, to 2,743.06.

European shares edged up, and recorded their biggest weekly gain in six months, with investors increasingly confident Japan's nuclear crisis and Middle East unrest would not derail global growth.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares rose 0.1 percent to 1,124.65 points, the highest close since March 10. Volumes were 77.5 percent of the 90-day average. Over the week, the index rose 3.3 percent, the biggest gain since September, and has regained almost half the ground lost in the fall between a February high and a March low.

The Nikkei average rose to round off a week of gains as foreign investors scooped up battered shares, but their buying could ebb next week on persisting concerns about a crippled nuclear plant and power cuts.

The benchmark Nikkei ended the day up 1.1 percent or 101.12 points at 9,536.13, helped by broad optimism towards the global economy and a rise in US shares ahead of forthcoming earnings reports.