New York ? Wall Street closed out a volatile week and month with a comparatively mild performance Friday, ending mostly higher on encouraging words from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The major indexes ended the week with gains, but still posted big declines for November.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 150 points in the session after Bernanke gave investors more reason to believe further interest rate cuts could be on the way. But the market gave back a big chunk of the gains, a fizzle that was perhaps to be expected after stocks’ huge gains Tuesday and Wednesday. Nervousness about tech stocks, the result of weak results from Dell Inc., pulled the tech-dominated Nasdaq composite index down.

The Dow rose 59.99, or 0.45 percent, to 13,371.72. Broader stock indicators were mixed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 11.42, or 0.78 percent, to 1,481.14, and the Nasdaq fell 7.17, or 0.27 percent, to 2,660.96.

For the week, the Dow gained 3.01 percent, the S&P 500 added 2.81 percent and the Nasdaq advanced 2.48 percent.

Government bonds fell as investors pulled their money out of the safe securities and put it back into stocks.

Crude oil prices fell $2.30 to settle at $88.71 per barrel – their lowest levels in more than a month – on the New York Mercantile Exchange.