LONDON—Stock markets dipped on Friday in thin trading but were set to see in the New Year with double-digit gains for 2021 while oil prices hovered near $80 a barrel following their biggest annual rise since 2009. The U.S. dollar, which has had its best year since 2015 with a 6.7 percent rise, was steady against most major currencies. With several markets in Asia and Europe closed on Friday, trading volumes were very thin and most markets directionless. Britain’s FTSE 100, an underperformer throughout 2021, fell 0.35 percent. Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open after a late pullback on Thursday. The MSCI World Index was marginally higher and remains just 0.5 percent off record highs. The index has surged 17 percent in 2021, its third consecutive year of double-digit gains. A growing number of countries are reporting record daily cases of COVID-19 because the Omicron variant and New …