31/12/2012: Pimco Twitter-cast for 2013

Bill Gross of Pimco issued his 'twitter-cast' for 2013:

Gross: 2013 Fearless Forecasts: 

1. Stocks & bonds return less than 5% (so shallower returns for 2013 across both asset classes than in 2012, e.g. S&P500 YTD gain of 12.2%, US 10year Treasury yield index down from 1.880 to 1.7574 YTD)
2. Unemployment stays at 7.5% or higher 
3. Gold goes up (no indication by how much, but gold rose 6.3% in 2012 and is now on the longest price appreciation trend since 1920, having clocked 12th consecutive annual gain)
4. 5yr US Treasuries yield 0.70% by end of 2013 (5yr Ts started 2012 at 0.830 yield and closed off on 0.7229)
5. Dollar declines (see below)
6. Oil above USD100 at 'some point in year' (WTI is now down 8% for 2012 on foot of shale gas boom in the US, with WTI-Brent spread averaging at a discount USD17.44/barrel against a premium of USD0.95 for the 10 years period through 2010 (according to Bloomberg data). Brent was up 2.8% this year - a fourth consecutive annual gain. The significance of shale effect is hard to overestimate: US crude production is at 6/985 million barrels per day - the highest since 1993.)

And couple of precedent 'tweeter-casts':

Two charts for USD and Euro YTD changes:

Update: fresh closing data: Nasdaq Comp up almost 16% y/y, DJIA up 7.3% and S&P 500 up 13%.