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

With the U.S. economy expected to remain stagnant for a while, Goldman Sachs offers a bleak outlook. The firm's chief U.S. equity strategist, David Kostin, predicts that the S&P 500 in 2012 will end at a relatively flat 1250 -- and a mere 0.4% higher than the index's closing level about a week before the end of 2011.

"The high degree of political uncertainty coupled with downside policy tail risk drives our view that equity investors should focus on the underlying fundamentals and position portfolios for the worse while hoping for the best," Kostin wrote in a recent note to clients.

It remains to be seen what will transpire in Europe, given the fact that officials are far from resolving the region's ongoing debt crisis. But if the collapse of the euro were to happen, Kostin believes that could "wipe 25% in value from stocks, driving the S&P 500 to 900."

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