Investors resumed their December rally today, looking past higher oil prices and focusing instead on building up their portfolios before year’s end.

Wall Street closed out a difficult week with a small gain today, even as many investors, concerned over yet another spike in oil prices and a drop in consumer confidence, stayed on the sidelines.

DELL INC, the world’s largest personal-computer maker, said second-quarter net income rose 29% as it bolstered sales of servers and printers and expanded outside the US.

Wall Street tried but failed to overcome disappointment over a jump in inflation today, closing moderately lower despite assurances by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan that the US job market will improve. The major indexes all ended the week with losses, and the Nasdaq composite index was down for the fifth straight week.

Wall Street edged higher in choppy trading today, with investors making few moves as they waited for companies to start reporting their fourth-quarter earnings this week.

Wall Street retreated Thursday as a wave of terror attacks continued in Turkey with the bombings of HSBC bank and the British consulate. Upbeat reports on employment and the economy helped limit the market’s losses.

IBM, the world’s biggest computer maker, said it won one of its biggest server-computer contracts this year by charging less than Hewlett-Packard Co.

EMC Corporation, the world’s number three maker of computer data-storage machines, had a first-quarter profit because of an increase in services revenue and demand for new products.

DELL COMPUTERS, employing 4,700 in Ireland, reported a 30% increase in net income for the third-quarter yesterday and is expected to announce more good news concerning it Irish operation on Monday.