Predictions 2012

Look for solid auto sales, with Ford, Jeep, Hyundai/Kia and Tesla in the spotlight.

Scrutiny over oil and gas fracking, a hard landing for rare earth stocks, and a surprising jobs engine.

Consumers embrace cloud computing, a new battle over digital content, TV and the Intranet merge, and traditional publishing makes a comeback.

Two big retail players restructure, hard times for other brand names and ETFS become a scapegoat for market volatility.

Basketball's  labor-management battle costs dearly, Nike puts its stamp on the NFL merchandizing and a sponsorship goes to a new level.

Amazon expands it touchscreen business, there's consolidation in the cloud computing space, and  big changes in the Android market.

Look for a huge corporate spin-off, a major apparel merger, rock bottom bond yields,  hedge fund failures and an election defeat for President Obama.

Look for another bullish year in the futures  pits with gold hitting a new high and gasoline coming close to one.

The euro plunges against the U.S. currency, gold prices slump, and the Euro debt crisis  bailout costs $2 trillion.

2012 will be a tough year economically across much of the globe, but the US economy, while it won’t be thriving, will look good compared to Europe, China and Japan. Here are the rest of my predictions.

Look for most of 2011's trends to continue; home prices will fall while foreclosures, delinquencies and rental prices will rise.

Quantitative easing picks up, US stocks outperform global indices  and the Chinese economy slows down for real.

Housing slumps but stocks jump in China, a reversal for Japanese bond yields and deficit problems dog India.

Shoppers will pick through the after-holiday sales, and then put their wallets away for the rest of the year.

Add health care fraud to ponzi schemes and insider trading at the top of the list of wrongdoing in the financial world.

Home sales rise and prices stabilize, growth is better than expected, Obama beats Romney and the euro survives and prospers.

Euro Zone debt crisis will get a lot worse, weak banks will fail, the EU will act at the last minute, US debt will dominate.

The economy looks half full, stock pickers rule and Washington and Europe dominate the markets.