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[ad_1] U.S. shares struck new highs for the year on Friday, setting world stocks up for gains for the week, as rising bets that the Federal Reserve will skip a rate hike next week overshadowed worries about U.S. markets being drained of cash. Helped by a surge in Tesla Inc, which jumped as much as 5.7%, the S&P 500 rose to levels last seen in August before receding by mid-day to be little changed. The Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also pared earlier gains to stand flat. Over in Europe, the STOXX 600 index lost 0.13%, but MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 0.74% overnight. Combined with gains on Wall Street, the MSCI’s broadest index of world stocks added 0.14% to hover under a 13-month high. For the week, the index for world stocks might notch a 0.4% rise. “As of today, the S&P 500 is back in a bull market," said Arthur Hogan, chief market strategist at Briley Wealth, noting that the index finished Thursday with a

[ad_1] U.S. stocks were mixed and benchmark Treasury yields jumped to their highest level since March on Thursday as robust economic data helped ease recession fears, but also increased the odds that the Fed will keep its restrictive policy in place for longer than expected. Financials led the gainers after the Federal Reserve’s stress test showed U.S. lenders have adequate capital to weather an economic storm. The Dow was up most among the three major U.S. stock indexes, the S&P 500 was up only nominally while the Nasdaq lingered in negative territory, weighed down by interest rate sensitive megacaps. Smallcaps were clear outperformers, with the Russell 2000 well ahead of the pack, up 1.1%. “What we have seen year-to-date is a very narrow rally that is occasionally punctuated by participation from the smaller stocks," said Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management in Philadelphia. “I believe we’re ahead of where we should be, and most observers are per