Yes it can. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) can outperform Apple Inc. (AAPL) in 2010. That was my thesis in December (see Buffett's Berkshire vs Jobs' Apple for 2010?) and I still believe all the Apple hype in the world will still succumb to a solid value proposition in the long run.

While Apple was reaching new all time highs Berkshire was treading water through 2009. However, after a monster run-up Apple is taking a breather.

If I was making my 2010 picks list today, I might have found a spot for Ross Stores (ROST), the holding company for Ross Dress for Less. Analysts have a hold or market perform rating on the stock, but that is meaningless to me. What does have meaning is 20% sales growth in a dismal year, contributing to a PEG ratio of .75 and an under market P/E of 12.66 (averaging trailing and future figures).

These are very good numbers, however, in reviewing some of the data points with Raphael P., a helpful broker in the Pleasant Hill, CA Wells Fargo (WFC) office, I was reminded that different financial sites have varying numbers. They usually vary by small fractions, as did the Wells data compared to the Aol (AOL) Money and Finance site, so I would encourage investors to check multiple sources.

While we wait for details on the president's plan to break up the banks, I wonder why the banks can't decide to break themselves up?

Wouldn't it be so much better to break up themselves than wait for President Obama to do it for them? Investment banks specialize in mergers and acquisitions and the converse spin-offs. Mergers and acquisitions are big business for Wall Street and they happen all the time. In fact, that's how many of the banks got so big.

Banks have seen a hectic couple of days' of trading, thanks to a bevy of news. I thought it may be good to take a look at some earnings results from a few of the banks, and what it could mean for the economy going forward.

First, let's look at the earnings:

• JPMorgan Chase (JPM): earnings of 74 cents per share; expectations for 60 cents per share
• Citigroup (C): a loss of six cents per share; expectations for a loss of 33 cents per share
• Goldman Sachs (GS): earnings of $8.20 per share; expectations for earnings of $5.20

U.S. stock futures were mixed Friday morning as investors mulled results from General Electric and others, and focused on the effects President Obama's plan to overhaul Wall Street would have on banks.

On Thursday, Wall Street suffered one of the worst day in month after the Obama administration announced a proposal to increase regulation on the financial industry. Despite several strong earnings, concerns over China's efforts to curb lending, a surprise increase in jobless claims and a drop in manufacturing amounted to the Dow industrials sinking 213 points, or 2%. The broader S&P 500 lost 1.9% and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 1.1%.

Analyst Upgrades

• FBR Capital upgraded Wells Fargo (WFC) to market perform from underperform and raised its target on shares to $26 from $21 following the company's better-than-expected quarter.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Starbucks (SBUX) to buy from hold following the company's better-than-expected Q1 results. The firm raised its target price on shares to $30 from $19.
• UBS upgraded Dreamworks (DWA) to buy from neutral, citing upside from its upcoming film releases. The firm raised its target to $50 from $35.
• Colgate (CL) was upgraded to conviction buy from buy at Goldman.
• F5 Networks (FFIV) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Applied Industrial (AIT) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Stephens.

PPI came in at +0.2% and the core PPI was unchanged. This sounded good, but China put the hex on the market by curbing its overextended businesses by asking lenders to stop making loans for the rest of the month. The dollar went higher on Greek woes again, and both the Greek impact on the US dollar strength and the China news took a bite out of commodity prices.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,583.73 -141.70 (-1.32%)
S&P 500 1,138.04 -12.19 (-1.06%)
Nasdaq 2,291.25 -29.15 (-1.26%)

Top Analyst Calls
Top Day Trader Alerts

San Francisco-based financial services provider Wells Fargo & Company (WFC), which claims $1.2 trillion in assets, is scheduled to discuss its fourth-quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 10:30 AM (ET). A live webcast of the call will be available at the company's website.

During the three months that ended in December, Wells Fargo reported its third consecutive quarter of record earnings, completed its TARP repayment and declared a quarterly dividend. But analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for Wells Fargo to have shrunk its loss to $0.01 per share from a year-ago loss of $0.79 per share. Fourth-quarter revenue is expected to have grown 123.6% from a year ago to $21.9 billion.

Last week, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) led off the coming parade of earnings from the big banks when it reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, though its revenue fell short of estimates.

Plenty more earnings from the financial sector are due out this week. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters anticipate fourth-quarter earnings growth from American Express Co. (AXP), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BK), Hudson City Bancorp Inc. (HCBK), SLM Corp. (SLM) and US Bancorp (USB).

So, here is the question: do you want to complain that the stock market closed out 2009 on a down day, or do you want to talk about how the DJIA was up 20% and the S&P was up 24% going into today? Exactly! Today was marked by very light trading volume, as you always see on the New Year's Eve trading session, and by profit taking in many major stocks. Today's drop in jobless claims was the lowest since summer of 2008.

Today's unofficial closing bell numbers:

Dow 10,426.46 -122.05 (-1.16%)
S&P 500 1,114.97 -11.45 (-1.02%)
Nasdaq 2,269.15 -22.13 (-0.97%)

If there ever was a stock that was hiding in plain sight, it is that of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) which is capitalized at a tad over $150 billion and run by "my pal Warren" and his pal Charlie. That's Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, perhaps the most successful investors in five generations.

Berkshire Hathaway, a textile mill, was Buffett's first turn-around play. He was successful and started generating significant amounts of free cash-flow that allowed him to invest in other things. Those investments also paid off and eventually the original enterprise became the namesake of today's diversified giant holding company.

I selected BRK.B for numerous reasons and believe it will easily beat the market next year as has been it's history.

The Street.com's Jim Cramer says that he's making it his mission in 2010 to call out people in the media who provide no value.

Have you ever noticed that with every good housing report there are endless caveats:

1. Prices are still down year over year.

2. The home tax credit of $8,000 moved the house, and that will go away.

3. Home mortgages are artificially low because of the Fed.

4. Banks have more foreclosures on their balance sheets than before.

5. Foreclosures continue to occur.

6. Everything will slip back to imbalance when the credit goes away.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says the dilution here was expected, and this one is marching higher.

What do you with Citigroup (C) (Cramer's Take) if you bought it on the deal now that you are up so huge? I'd keep it.

Remember, there were two variables to this deal -- how much raising the TARP return money would hurt the stock and how much the government's sale would hurt the stock. We saw the underwriting knock off about 60 cents from the stock, and we are getting the distinct view from Washington that there is no consensus between Treasury and the FDIC about what should be done with the government's stake beyond holding it for a while.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) shares rose after lower Q4 earnings and revenue beat analysts' expectations.
• Best Buy Inc. (BBY) shares sold off despite better-than-expected Q3 results due to the lower gross margin.
• Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) warned that Q4 earnings would come in lower than the Street view
• Discover Financial Services (DFS) shares were up after it reported better-than-expected Q4 earnings.
• First Solar Inc. (FSLR) offered a solid 2010 outlook but the consensus EPS estimate is high in the range.
• General Mills Inc. (GIS) strong Q2 results included better-than-expected earnings and a rosy outlook.

Analyst Upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Wells Fargo (WFC) to buy from hold as it believes the TARP repayment should remove uncertainty and that the company will report strong Q4 results. The firm raised its target price on shares to $36 from $29. Keefe Bruyette upgraded Wells Fargo to market perform from outperform following the TARP repayment and raised its target on shares to $28 from $24.
• Wells Fargo believes News Corp's (NWS) newspaper and TV station segments are finally outperforming budget, while cable nets continue to perform well. The firm upgraded shares to outperform from market perform and has a $16 to $17 Valuation range.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded Starwood Hotels (HOT) to buy from underperform as they expect "strong cyclical recovery in lodging earnings" in late 2010. The firm raised its target to $40 from $25.
• ArcelorMittal (MT) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• JA Solar (JASO) was upgraded to hold from sell at ThinkEquity.
• Acxiom (ACXM) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Stephens.