2012 looks like ‘frustrating’ year for stocks

2012 looks like ‘frustrating’ year for stocks

By Karl Henkel

khenkel@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

The year 2011 was, by all accounts, a disappointment for the stock market.

Analysts predicted big gains, and they got them.

But markets were also gashed with historic losses that offset those promising gains and left the overall stock spectrum relatively unchanged.

Now, heading into 2012, an election year, questions still remain, and 2012 looks no clearer than 2011, which Robert Gardner described as “frustrating.”

“I’d describe 2011 as a rather frustrating year of fits and starts,” said Gardner, CPA and financial adviser with Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc., Butler Wick Division in Canfield. “We began the year well enough, but from May on we dealt mostly with the European credit crisis plus domestic political issues such as debt ceilings, credit downgrades and tax policy debate.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average posted three of its best 12 days of all time, gaining 423 or more points twice in August and once in November.

But it also posted three of its worst 12 days of all time, losing 512 or more points in a one-week span during August.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.