Palm | Kelapa Sawit

DJI-NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks rallied on Friday after a week of volatility, but light trading volume suggested investors are still reluctant to make big bets due to turmoil in the Middle East and Japan's nuclear crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was up 83.93 points, or 0.71 percent, at 11,858.52, according to the latest available figures. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 5.49 points, or 0.43 percent, at 1,279.21. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was up 7.62 points, or 0.29 percent, at 2,643.67.

For the week, the Dow was down 1.5 percent, the S&P fell 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq lost 2.6 percent.

NYMEX-NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil futures fell on Friday after Libya declared a ceasefire to comply with a United Nations resolution authorizing a no-fly zone and other military action to protect civilians.

Losses were trimmed near the close after U.S. President Barack Obama warned Muammar Gaddafi that military action will ensue if Libya did not obey the U.N. demands.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for April delivery settled at $101.07 a barrel, down 35 cents. For the week, it dipped 9 cents, declining for two straight weeks.

CBOT-CHICAGO, March 18 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade soy ended 2 percent higher on the day, last up 27-1/4 cents at $13.62-1/2 on bullish technicals and prospects for a strike in Argentina among trucking and other transportation workers on Monday amid the harvest season, traders said.

Soybeans also found support from a lower forecast for soy acreage by private forecaster Informa Economics. Nearby soy futures ended 3.7 pct higher on the week.

FCPO-JAKARTA, March 18 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures rose more than 3 percent on Friday, as physical buying and investor fears eased over the impact of the nuclear crisis in quake-hit Japan.

The benchmark May 2011 crude palm oil contract on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed up 3.2 percent at 3,446 Malaysian ringgit ($1,128) a tonne, off an earlier high of 3,450 ringgit.

Volatile prices of the vegetable oil, used in products such as food, cosmetics, tyres and biofuels, hit a near four-month low of 3,250 on Tuesday but have gained more than 2 percent this week.

REGIONAL EQUITIES-BANGKOK, March 18 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian stock markets posted small gains on Friday at the end of a volatile week dominated by Japan's nuclear crisis, with shares in the region's refineries in demand after some Japanese plants closed.

Market players traded cautiously on Friday, with unrest in the Middle East adding to the risks to global economic growth, and turnover in most markets was low. In the Thai market it was just 70 percent of the average of the past 30 days.

Singapore's Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> ended down 0.2 percent, after climbing almost 1 percent at one point, led by financials, with Overseas Chinese Banking Corp down 0.2 percent.

Most Southeast Asian stock markets performed worse than last week, led by Vietnam's 6.9 percent drop, followed by Singapore's 3.5 percent.