Year's End

As 2010 draws to a close, it might be helpful to see where we've been this past year:

* The Dow Jones average started the year just over 9000, plunged to 6547 in March, then climbed all the way up over 10,500, to finish with a positive gain of around 20 percent on the year.

* The S&P 500 followed the same trajectory: It opened at 931, fell to 676 in March, and finished at just over 1100. Same thing for the Nasdaq, which went from 1632 to 1268, then all the way back up to about 2300. Overall, the Nasdaq climbed more than 40 percent on the year.

* Inflation mostly hovered around zero. July saw the biggest rate of deflation on the year, when prices fell 2.1 percent on an annualized basis. The bad news about inflation is that the highest number was also the most recent one we have: It rose 1.8 percent on an annualized basis in November.

* Unemployment remains the big problem. In January we were at an already lofty 7.6 percent unemployment, but the number just kept going up, peaking at 10.2 percent in October, although it slipped back slightly to 10.0 percent in November, the most recent figures we have.

* Gold started the year at about $875 an ounce, then sagged a bit to $813 in mid-January. A big run in the precious metal, based in large part on the weak dollar, pushed it as high as around $1200 an ounce in early December, but it's now dipped back to just under $1100.

All in all, 2009 was a brighter year than most investors expected a year ago. Let's hope for even more good news in 2010. Happy new year!