QUEST: It is that time of year when we look at the 12 days of Christmas. For 35 years, economists at PNC have calculated how much each of the 12 days what costs if you were to buy in the songs. For example, doves, French hens and calling birds, they are unchanged in price. The swans traditionally volatile, it's been a flat year, the third year in a row. Now, geese did rise, they flew, and tight labor markets pushed up the cost of those entertainers, those lords are leaping, pipers piping, drummers drumming, they advanced some 3 percent. And as for those five gold rings, now they are a serious problem because they're done some 9 percent. But the gold rings follows 10 percent rise of last year. Now, if you want to know how much it costs to buy all of this in one go, it is $39,000. But remember, the total cost of all 364 items is $170,000. It's up 5 percent, French hens. There you are, total cost of Christmas, $170,000. Now to the last few minutes of trade -- actually, by the way, talking of all that, the true cost of Christmas, you won't have much left by the time -- windy outside, cold in the weather and cold on the markets. The Dow is down 555 points, we're off 2.3 percent. The broader market is also off as well. That's off quite sharply. We are now in a bear market, near enough. I mean, technically because it's down 20 percent for the Nasdaq, which is all giving some cause for concern. And the issue is what or when will this turn around? The common census seems to be that's not going to happen any time soon. Dow fall off 540, a loss of 2.4 percent. The loser down was Twitter, Twitter on the Nasdaq. Twitter was down almost 10 percent after being downgraded by a research company calling it the Harvey Weinstein of social media. It is cold out there, and the financial world doesn't look like it's going to get any warmer any time soon.
PNC Calculates Cost of "12 Days of Christmas".