Dell (DELL) still sells billions of dollars per quarter in PCs, servers and business services, but who is the company? In January 2007, when Michael Dell returned to the company he founded, sales were dragging and Dell was losing its edge. Still, in 2009, Taiwan's Acer bypassed Dell to become the second-largest PC manufacturer in the U.S.

It's some time now that the company has been seen as a laggard, a "me too" follower without much real innovation. Even the slimmest laptop PC ever made didn't quite make a splash. And recently, Dell decided to enter the cellphone market, but with what looks like just another product in a sea of competition.

Ford (F) CEO Alan Mulally celebrated December auto sales that came in stronger than anticipated by stating that Ford's sales forecast for 2010 were "conservative." In 2009, auto sales in the U.S. dropped to 10.5 million units -- the worst performance since the early '80s.

Mulally believes 2010 will bring industry sales of 11.5 to 12.5 million vehicles, saying "we think that is relatively conservative looking at the data for this year." December's upswing put the annualized forecast sales rate at 11.6 million units, and Mulally indicated that Ford should be solidly profitable in 2011 -- just two years after both its U.S. competitors took federal bailout money and saw GM declare bankruptcy.

After a 2009 that left retailer Target (TGT) crabwalking in regards to same-store sales growth slowdowns, the retailer is now going to experiment with a " warehouse club" strategy that will see if its mix of clean and bright retailer stores and the bulky and boring merchandising of wholesale goods will have consumer appeal.

Like competitors Walmart (WMT) and Costco (COST), Target wants to latch onto the idea that customers perusing its stores will want to continue their saving ways from 2009 and buy groceries and other goods in bulk. For seven weeks, items like paper towels, toilet paper, toothpaste and granola bars will be available in bulk packaging as Target determines interest. Is that enough time to gauge seasonality purchasing and a lot of other variables? Who knows.

On Friday federal rules take effect that require mortgage lenders and brokers to give consumers better estimates of the many costs that can vary widely, increasing the total cost of your purchase.

Here are a few of the hidden costs to look for:

• First, we have the "origination" charge. That is a fee for preparing your paper work. That can vary from lender to lender. One lender may charge $500 and another may charge $750, etc.

The orange crop in Florida is especially sensitive to freezing temperatures. Cold air masses have been flowing down through the U.S. into Florida with no warm air buffers to stop them. These cold air masses are scheduled to last throughout the week.

The Florida Citrus Mutual trade association warned growers on Sunday that an overnight freeze could damage crops. It said: "We could have cold or borderline temperatures each night over the next week. It'll be an anxious seven days for us."

The end of a year means a rush of data from the insurance and reinsurance industries, as treaties are renewed for the coming year. Catastrophe bonds are a part of this annual orgy of data production, as a flurry of activity occurs in December, with the industry's commitment to this form of alternative property-catastrophe risk-transfer setting the tone for the year to come. The cat bond market isn't big enough to push reinsurance rates, but you can generally get a sense of what the coming year will look like for cat bonds based on pricing for traditional reinsurance.

Apple's (AAPL) iPhone has reinvigorated the wireless handset industry. It was there first (in many ways) and it will be hard for any company without virtually unlimited resources to wrestle the golden crown from Apple. First movers generally don't relinquish their titles.

With Google (GOOG) set to announce the "Nexus One" handset tomorrow based on its own Android mobile operating system, does it want a piece of Apple's action? Is that its goal?

Lloyd's of London is poised to take some risks in 2010. In fact, it's ready to put more than $36 billion into the insurance and reinsurance world, according to analysts at reinsurance intermediary Guy Carpenter, a division of Marsh & McLennan (MMC).

The year-over-year increase could be as high as 27% compared to 2009, with the additional capacity coming from lower risk-transfer rates for some lines of business, though much of it is being offered to compensate for the weakness of the British pound relative to stronger currencies, such as the U.S. dollar.

A new year is upon us and like the beginnings of any year, and even more so, a decade, the predictions are flying fast and furious.

The start of 2010 is bringing out every analyst, talking head, business journalist, periodical and newsletter propagator, sportscaster, palm reader, taro card interpreter, astrologist, medium and madam making predictions to garner attention, entertain and even profit. Apologies to anyone I left out.

China has been dumping steel piping onto the U.S. market. In 2008, imports of steel piping from China totaled 2.8 billion dollars. Between 2006 and 2008, Chinese pipe imports surged 203%.

China has been accused of dumping steel piping onto the U.S. market at below-market prices. The result has been the the U.S. has had to cut steel pipe and tubing production by 40%.

During my tenure at BloggingStocks I have expressed my opinion often about the contribution that dividends make to your overall return. Most shrewd investors, and especially "my pal Warren," know this and understand why I re-emphasize the point when I make my annual selections.

By now I hope you have had a chance to peruse my picks for 2010. If not the links below will give you another opportunity.

For the first time my annual picks will include a stock option. I have written numerous blogs this year about something called "naked puts" -- that is a sell to open put position -- committing me to buy a certain number of shares by a certain date if the closing price is less than the strike price.

In this case I have selected the E*TRADE (ETFC) January 2011, $2.50 puts last traded on December 28, 2009 at $0.97 for a 39% return. If it expires, as I am betting it will, by the third Friday of that month I have no further obligation.

This type of option transaction is not available to most investors. It is marginable, but you pay no interest.