Housing, stocks, gold and oil: Hot or not in 2012?

Others predict that gold's glory days could very well end in 2012. While it has rallied for more than a decade, prices of the precious metal have failed to reach new highs during the last few months of 2011. In December alone, the precious metal lost 11% of its value, putting it on track for its first monthly fall since September and its weakest December since the credit crunch of 2008.

Barry Ritholtz, author of the Big Picture blog, noted on December 15 that gold in 2012 "could be the biggest disappointment of the year." Even though it seems European officials are far from resolving its debt problems, "the Gold pullback has some traders declaring this to be the end of the bull run. Who knew the shiny yellow metal could turn into a lump of coal?" Ritholtz writes.

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