2012 flashback: Top business news that grabbed the limelight

Associated Press lists the top developments that dominated the US business world in 2012 and grabbed attention worldwide. Seen here: A June 28, 2012, file photo of Tim Murphy holding up a copy of the Supreme Court's healthcare ruling in Washington. The Supreme Court caught many by surprise when it backed the Obama administration's healthcare reform in June 2012. The law requires Americans to buy insurance or pay a tax, while subsidising the needy.

An August 8, 2012, file photo shows dark clouds from a passing thunderstorm over a dry cornfield in Blair. In 2012, US suffered its worst drought since the 1950s, covering 80 per cent of US farmland. Grain and food prices soared.

A June 13, 2012, file photo of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, head of the largest bank in the United States, testifying in Washington before the Senate Banking Committee about how his company recently lost more than $2 billion on risky trades. Throughout 2012, banks faced scrutiny as drama ensued. JPMorgan Chase lost $6 billion in a complex series of trades.

In 2012, domestic crude oil production in US achieved its biggest one-year gain since 1951, driven by output in North Dakota and Texas. The United States is on pace to pass Saudi Arabia as the world's top oil producer within two years.

After a six-year slump that sent more than 4 million homes into foreclosure and shrank home prices about one-third nationwide, the US housing market began to recover in 2012. Modest job gains and record-low mortgage rates fueled demand.

A May 18, 2012, file photo of Facebook founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (center) ringing the Nasdaq opening bell from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Years of anticipation led to Facebook's initial public offering of stock in 2012, the hottest Internet IPO since Google's in 2004. Many of the one billion-plus users of the world's largest online social network craved a chance to buy in early. On the eve of its first trading day, Facebook's market value was $105 billion, yet the IPO bombed.

A November 16, 2012, file photo of US President Barack Obama acknowledging House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio while speaking to reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. A dreaded package of tax increases and deep spending cuts to domestic and defense programs loomed over the economy in 2012 as Congress and the White House negotiated the budgetary steps needed to avoid it.

A November 1, 2012, file photo of US President Barack Obama during a campaign event in Las Vegas. In 2012, Obama vaulted to a re-election victory over Mitt Romney, who had staked his bid on the weakest US economic rebound since the Great Depression and had pledged to slash taxes. Yet Obama won despite the highest unemployment rate of any president seeking re-election since World War II.

A May 2012 file photo of protesters packing the Puerta del Sol plaza in central Madrid. Worldwide growth was slack again in 2012. The global economy grew just 3.3 per cent, down from 3.8 per cent in 2011 and 5.1 per cent in 2010, the International Monetary Fund estimates.

Many had hoped that 2012 would be the year when the global economy finally regained its vigor, but the three largest economies: The United States, China and Japan struggled, while the 17 countries that use euro endured a third painful year in their financial crisis and slid into recession, and emerging economies slowed.

An October 23, 2012, file photo of people examining Apple's iPad Mini in California. Competition in mobile technology intensified in 2012 as Apple maintained worldwide dominance. But the use of Google's Android software on competing smartphones and tablets spread faster than Apple's market share. Forty-four per cent of US adults own smartphones, up from about 35 per cent in 2011.