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Europe's debt crisis remains a thorn in the side of investors, and fears are creeping back that the euro zone is in crisis mode.

Consider that Italian bond yields topped the crucial the 7% mark on Thursday, and the euro currency dropped to its lowest level against the dollar in 15 months. That has Bob Doll, BlackRock's chief investment strategist, concerned.

"Europe is the most important risk in 2012," Doll tells Henry Blodget in the above clip.

The European Union's leaders, led by Germany's Angela Merkel and France's Nicolas Sarkozy, have pledged to work together to bring more cohesion to the 17-member bloc, and EU governments and the European Central Bank are determined to prevent the interest rates of Italy and Spain from rising to levels that forced Greece to ask for a rescue package. The ECB cut interest rates two times in the fourth quarter of last year and has been offering banks unprecedented deals to persuade them to keep lending.

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The evidence has been clear for the last few months that the U.S. economy was accelerating in the second half, and toward the close. The jobs market, long a lagging indicator, is showing some signs of catching up. Expectations had been for Friday morning's December jobs release, thanks to the ADP report on Thursday that suggested the private sector created 325,000 jobs in the month. The ADP report tends to be somewhat exuberant in December, and doesn't account for the public sector, which has reliably been hacking jobs.

Still, the December report contained a fair amount of good news — for people on Main Street, and for the people in the White House. Let's look inside the report for some takeaways. And watch the accompanying video to hear The Daily Ticker's Henry Blodget interview First Trust Portfolios chief economist Brian Wesbury break down the numbers and what it means for the Presidential election.

Payroll Gains. The headline