After a one-day pause, the US stock market resumed its advance on Friday. The S&P 500 rose 1.0 percent to a new record high even as the US dollar rose 0.8 percent to its highest level since July 2010.
Positive economic data on Friday helped boost markets.
US consumer sentiment improved in May. The preliminary Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment increased to 83.7 this month, the highest since July 2007, from 76.4 in April.
The outlook for the US economy also appears positive. The Conference Board's index of US leading indicators rose 0.6 percent in April after falling 0.2 percent in March.
Earlier in the day, Japanese stocks also resumed their advance, with the Topix gaining 0.6 percent to close at its highest level since August 2008.
Again, positive news out of Japan on Friday probably helped.
Japanese core machinery orders surged 14.2 percent in March. This still left core orders for the January-March quarter unchanged from the previous quarter though and manufacturers surveyed by the government expect core orders to fall 1.5 percent in the April-June quarter.
The Japanese government is clearly keen to ensure more sustained growth. In a speech to business executives and academics on Friday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that it aims to boost domestic private investment over the next three years and triple infrastructure exports and double farm, fisheries and marine exports to 1 trillion yen by 2020.
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