Oracle lifts Nasdaq while S&P rises on banks

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 rose modestly on Friday on relief that the financial regulation bill wouldn't crimp Wall Street profits as badly as feared and as tech company Oracle's strong results revived hopes about business spending. Despite the day's gains, the main stock indexes fell for the week after two straight weeks of gains and recorded their weakest performance in five weeks.

Banks climbed after lawmakers agreed on rules that did not make dramatic changes to derivatives and proprietary trading, two highly profitable businesses in lawmakers' crosshairs. The bill must still be approved by both chambers of Congress before it can be signed into law. JPMorgan Chase & Co rose 3.7 percent at $39.44 while Bank of America Corp gained 2.7 percent to $15.42. The S&P financial sector, which is down 8.4 percent over the past quarter, rose 2.8 percent. "Regulation is less onerous than people's fears, so you're seeing a bit of a relief rally in the financials today, which obviously is helping," said Michael James, senior trader at Wedbush Morgan in Los Angeles. Oracle Corp gained 1.7 percent to $22.60 a day after it posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit on solid sales of new software.