New York — World stocks advanced on Friday and were poised for a modest gain to end the week as a drop in the dollar helped boost sagging oil prices. The dollar fell against a basket of major currencies as preliminary data on US factory and services activities in June fell short of analyst forecasts, stoking doubts about US economic growth for the rest of 2017. That drop in the greenback helped crude oil pull away from 10-month lows, although prices were still set for their worst first-half performance since 1997. On the week, both Brent and WTI crude have lost nearly 4%. "Oil is probably trying to recoup some of the losses that they’ve had this week," said Jim Davis, regional investment manager at US Bank Wealth Management in Springfield, Illinois. US crude rose 0.84% to 43.10 per barrel and Brent was last at 45.64, up 0.93% on the day. The climb in crude helped lift energy stocks on Wall Street, with the group up 0.8% as the best performing of the major S&P sectors. The US dollar ...
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