02/17/2012
Potpourri for $400
Miscellaneous
Euro-zone [employ euro currency] Unemployment Rates
Austria 4.1 percent
Belgium 7.2
Cyprus 9.3
Estonia 11.3
Finland 7.6
France 9.9
Germany 5.5
Greece 20.8
Ireland 14.5
Italy 8.9
Luxembourg 5.2
Malta 6.5
Netherlands 4.9
Portugal 13.6
Slovakia 13.4
Slovenia 8.2
Spain 22.9
Others in European Union
Bulgaria 11.2
Czech Republic 6.8
Denmark 7.8
Hungary 10.9
Latvia 14.8
Lithuania 15.3
Poland 9.9
Romania 7.0
Sweden 7.5
United Kingdom 8.4
EU 17…10.4
EU 27…9.9
Others
Norway 3.3
Croatia 13.0
Turkey 8.3
Japan 4.6
United States 8.3
Source: Eurostat
As January Goes….
Pretty powerful stuff down below…4% plus gains for the S&P 500 in January since 1950 and how we finished up for the year.
1951…6.1 percent [Jan.] 16.5 percent [for the year]
1954…5.1…45.0
1958…4.3…38.1
1961…6.3…23.1
1963…4.9…18.9
1967…7.8…20.1
1971…4.0…10.8
1975…12.3…31.5
1976…11.8…19.1
1979…4.0…12.3
1980…5.8…25.8
1985…7.4…26.3
1987…13.2…2.0 [crash that fall]
1988…4.0…12.4
1989…7.1…27.3
1991…4.2…26.3
1997…6.1…31.0
1999…4.1…19.5
2012…4.4…????
*Isn’t it kind of an interesting statistical quirk that the three Januarys where the return was exactly 4.0%, the rest of the year was just so-so relative to the others? [As in the three worst yearly returns of this data set, save for 1987.]
Source: 2012 Stock Trader’s Almanac / Jeffrey A. Hirsch & Yale Hirsch
Where Gold Comes From…Top 10 Producers
[2011 estimate, in tons]
China 391
Australia 298
United States 261
Russia 220
South Africa 209
Peru 165
Canada 121
Ghana 110
Indonesia 110
Uzbekistan 99
World Gold Demand…what we use it for
[Third quarter 2011]
Investments 44.4 percent
Jewelry 44.2
Technology 11.4 [electronics 8.3; other industrial 2.1; dentistry 1.0]
Source: Smithsonian
Wall Street History returns in two weeks.
Brian Trumbore
