World equity markets hit a record high on Friday as the US dollar held near three-year lows, while US Treasury yields continued their ascent to hit their highest levels since September 2014.
US stocks rose modestly, with each of the major Wall Street indexes marking their third straight weekly gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 53.91 points, or 0.21 per cent, to 26,071.72.
The S&P 500 gained 12.27 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 2,810.3 and the Nasdaq Composite added 40.33 points, or 0.55 per cent.
For the week, the Dow rose 1.04 per cent, the S&P 500 advanced 0.86 per cent and the Nasdaq rose 1.04 per cent, to 7,336.38, reports Reuters.
European shares closed higher as confidence grew about corporate earnings and the strength of the global economy.
The euro zone’s STOXX benchmark index closed up 0.73 per cent at 402.95 points, its highest level in 10 years and the pan-regional STOXX 600 benchmark rose 0.5 per cent to 400.71 points, a 2-1/2 year peak.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index rose 0.49 per cent, and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe .MIWD00000PUS gained 0.46 per cent. MSCI's index notched its ninth straight week of gains.
The trade-weighted dollar index =USD was last up 0.1 per cent, but was on pace for its fifth straight weekly drop, and is down nearly 2.0 per cent so far in 2018.
The euro EUR= was down 0.14 per cent to $1.222.
Yields on the 10-year U.S. government note hit a three-year high as weakness in overnight trading led the debt to test key technical support levels, before the higher yields attracted new buyers.
The benchmark 10-year yield US10YT=RR hit its highest level since July 2014 at 2.661 per cent, breaking the 2017 high of 2.64 per cent the market had been flirting with all week.
Benchmark 10-year notes US10YT=RR last fell 12/32 in price to yield 2.6555 per cent, from 2.611 per cent late on Thursday.
Oil prices retreated and snapped a four-week streak of gains. US crude CLcv1 settled down 0.9 per cent at $63.37 per barrel and Brent LCOcv1 was last at $68.61, down 1.0 per cent on the day.
