New York — An index of world stocks dipped on Friday as investors locked in a quarterly gain that has given equities their best start to a year since 2012, while the dollar inched lower after a Federal Reserve official said the US central bank was in no rush to tighten policy. US stocks indexes were nearly flat in late-morning trading. The S&P 500 was still on track to gain about 6% for the first quarter, its biggest quarterly gain since 2013. Emerging market equities fell sharply though, with the MSCI emerging markets index down 1.1% on Friday. MSCI’s EM stocks index is up 12.5% on a dollar-adjusted basis. Shares saw profit-taking as traders squared up for the quarter. There was remaining nervousness over South Africa’s sacking of its respected finance minister, which sent the rand tumbling again. World stocks as measured by the MSCI world equity index were down 0.3% on Friday but up 6.6% for the quarter so far. In the United States, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 22.98 ...
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