Wall Street beat Washington last year.
Overcoming an inept White House and Congress, stock markets stumbled through the last quarter to post solid gains in 2012.
Despite President Obama and lawmakers fumbling the fiscal cliff issue throughout the fourth quarter — pushing major US marts into the red in the period — the Dow Jones industrial average, the Standard & Poor’s 500 and the Nasdaq all rang up solid gains for the year.
For the Dow, which closed 2012 up 7.3 percent, it was the fourth straight annual increase following 2008’s 33.8 percent decline.
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The S&P closed up 13.4 percent after logging a break-even 2011.
Bank of America — once the butt of jokes as the worst bank in the US — saw its shares soar 110 percent to $11.61 and outperformed its peers.
Apple stayed on the top of the heap as the world’s most valuable company with a market value of $500.6 billion. Shares rose 31 percent for the year to $532.17.
Stocks weren’t the only winners.
Gold closed up 6 percent, marking the 12th straight year it posted an annual price gain. However, it did not outperform the S&P 500 for the first time since 2004.
Oil had a bad year, with the price of US crude falling more than 7 percent, to $91.82 a barrel, snapping a string of three straight annual advances.
Even DC couldn’t stomp on stocks
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Even DC couldn’t stomp on stocks
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Even DC couldn’t stomp on stocks
