Stocks rise but new high remains elusive

Stocks rose on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.6 percent, the STOXX Europe 6 jumped 1.2 percent, the Nikkei 225 rose 0.5 percent and the Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent for the week and is up 0.4 percent so far this year.

Still, a Bloomberg article noted that the S&P 500 has now gone a full year without making a new high.

More often than not, such dry spells are ominous for equities. Among the 13 instances since 1946 that began with stocks going as long as they have now without posting new highs, 10 ended in bear markets.

On the bright side, on the three occasions when bull markets survived such slumps, U.S. equities went on to rise 22 percent in the year after a new high was reached.