Bullish comments from Warren Buffett helped US stocks end on a positive note on Monday, but uncertainty about oil prices could keep investors from driving the market further.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 95.89 points or 0.79 per cent to 12,226.34. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 7.35 points or 0.56 per cent at 1,327.23. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.22 points or 0.04 per cent at 2,782.27.

Mr Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, spoke in his widely read annual letter to shareholders of the need for "major acquisitions’’, a sign stocks may be cheap.