Carl Icahn isn't forecasting a dramatic stock market drop quite yet but the billionaire investor is still bracing for a market sell-off in the next three to five years, he told Reuters on Monday.

For good stock market bets, some top investors can't be too bothered by details like corporate profits: instead, they pick companies run by their founders.

A handful of toss-up U.S. Senate races next week could hold the key to whether the stock market glides through the year-end in a typical post-midterm election rally or gets hit with a fresh bout of volatility.

The dollar surged to a three-week high, bond yields rose and gold fell on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve ended its six-year quantitative easing bond-buying program.

A positive vibe returned to the U.S. stock market Friday, leaving some to wonder if, after two weeks of losses, the latest selloff scare was over. The best clues may come from what happens to low-quality corporate bonds.

U.S. stocks have been on a roll of late, with the S&P 500 hitting the latest in a series of records on Thursday, and investors expect the index's momentum to soon carry it to - if not far past - the 2,000 milestone.

U.S. stocks closed out their best year in more than 15 on Tuesday, rising modestly on a strong consumer confidence reading that kept 2013's upward bias intact to the end.

Asian markets took cheer on Tuesday after Wall Street rang up more records and upbeat U.S. spending data burnished the outlook for the global economy, with Japan's Nikkei hitting a 2013 high after Tokyo markets opened after a holiday.

For hedge funds that made money this year there was only one strategy that really mattered - latching onto the stockmarket rally.

A major index of world equities rose to near a six-year high on Friday, helped by gains in U.S. stocks, on faith in an improving global economy and support from central banks, while U.S. crude oil rebounded from recent declines.