Target plans to add a “mini apple store” inside its stores. It’s a brilliant move for both Target and Apple. Apple computers are available in Frys and Best buy stores. By making its computers and devices available in Target, Apple is going to benefit from Target’s presence all over the U.S.

BTW, Apple’s chart shows the uptrend. I guess it’s time to pick up some more Apple shares.

Disclaimer: I own Apple shares.

Related Link: Apple Insider

Something is cooking up… It looks like economic recovery is gaining momentum. Economic recovery is depending on the recovery in the job market. Luckily we are seeing some strong evidence that job market is improving. US unemployment rate dropped to near three-year low of 8.5%. Nonfarm payrolls are increased by 200,000 in December according to the Labor Department. Economists were expecting 150,000 gain in nonfarm payrolls.

Right now, 13 million workers are unemployed. It is going to take many more months to recoup all the losses in the job market. However we hope that the current momentum in job market recovery would continue for the next six months provided Europe debt crisis doesn’t get worse.

All right folks.. Zynga IPO is coming soon. The company sets the offer price in $8.50 – $10 range. The IPO is expected to hit Nasdaq in mid-December under the ticker ZNGA.

Zynga recorded earnings of $30.7 million for the first nine months of this year, on revenue of $828.9 million. It’s anybody’s guess whether Zynga will go in the way of LinkedIn that trades better than its debut price or Pandora that trades 33% lower than its debut price. I would be a buyer if Zynga really trades at $9 – $10 range on the first day. Zynga’s underwriters have an option to sell additional 15 million shares if the demand is strong. If the underwriters artificially increase the demand and hike the stock price, it’s better to stay away from that game. You can play Zynga games, but don’t play with your money! If the stock shoots up to unreasonable level on the first day, wait till it comes back down to earth.

Banks are getting more desperate and are finding ways to dig hole for themselves. Bank of America plans to charge $5 month for debit cards that are used for purchases. If you use the card just at ATMs, you will not be charged.

Relevant details are here.

Banks are not just giving away the debit card for purchase. Every bank charges the transaction fee from merchants. That alone is not enough, now they need to get the money from consumers too. Well, it’s just a matter of time before they realize the blunder corporate move.

Update: Just like we said, Bank of America realized their blunder and backed off. Read New York Times article for more information about Bank of America cancelling the debit card fee.

Although there is no net change in U.S. unemployment rate, many cities reported drop in unemployment rates. Unemployment rate in Mansfield, Ohio fell from 11.4% to 10.1%. Bismarck, N.D. reported the nation’s lowest unemployment rate, at 3%. Yuba City, CA and Modesto, CA also reported the drop of 1.6%.

Although the drop is not very significant, it’s a good start. News like this always come with a caveat — in this case, lots of people stopped looking for a job, they are not counted as unemployed.

Stock market is bleeding. Even the gold price is going down. I would stay away from the stock market until there is a strong evidence of job growth and improvement in overall U.S. job market.

Markets tanked…miserably. There is a fear, uncertainty and what not. The prices have come down a lot. Is it a good time to buy?

To answer this question, ask yourself another question “would you buy anything just because the price is cheaper compared to historical prices?”. Most sensible people would say no!

Price is just one part of the equation. If the fundamentals are good and you like the stock, it’s ok to buy the stock during dip. It may be even a better idea to sell puts for the stock you like.

Buying on the dip may make you feel better. But, would it grow your investments? Proper research is essential before you start buying on the dip.

Google proved that it’s still a growth company. Google posted a quarterly profit of $2.51 billion, or $7.68 a share, up from $1.84 billion, or $5.71 a share, a year earlier. Total revenue was $9.03, up from $6.82 billion a year ago. Solid earnings boosted the stock price up by $67 after-hours.

Google CEO Larry Page mentioned that 10 million people have profiles in Google+ in just few weeks after its launch. 135 million Android devices have been activated so far. Android sees 550,000 activations per day meaning that consumers are buying that many new android phones per day all over the world.

For now, Google’s search business contributes most of its profits. However, Android and Google+ is going to contribute more profits to Google in the years to come.

Disclaimer: I own Google stock.

Related Link: Bloomberg Article

What is the easiest way to sell used textbooks? Craigslist like sites are good. If you don’t find anyone there, you can try the websites created just for this purpose. I tried the websites listed below.

Cash4Books: Interface looks good. But, the site pays peanuts for the books. They generously agreed to pay $2 for the book I paid $90! No, thank you.

Bookjingle: Same as above.

BookScouter: This is better than two sites listed above. BookScouter is more like comparison shopping site for used books. When I was browsing bookscouter, I came to know about Amazon’s trade-in program.

Bookscouter List

Amazon’s trade-in program is simple. Amazon agreed to pay $21 for my textbook whereas every other cheap site was adamant about $2-$5 price range.The catch with Amazon is that they give you gift card instead of cash. If you use Amazon regularly, gift card is as good as cash.

All the above sites, including Amazon, have lot of restrictions when buying used books from you. If your book is published before 2008, you are out of luck. Used textbooks sites are looking for fairly newer books so that they can turn it around quickly. So, don’t wait around to sell your used textbooks. Sell them as soon as you get your grades.

Following Linkedin IPO and its crazy valuation, Groupon is preparing for its IPO. The IPO could value Groupon in the border of $20 billion. Groupon filed form S1 with SEC. IPO may happen in 2-3 months. In the form S1 (page 12), Groupon mentioned that it spent $179 million in the first quarter of 2011 for online marketing. However, when the company calculated its first quarter margin, it conveniently ignored the $179 million online marketing expenses and calculated the profit for Q1 2011 as $82 million. If you include the online marketing expenses, the company really had the loss of $82-$179 = $97 million.

These IPOs definitely look sexy based on all the hype surrounding them. However, if you had burnt your fingers in dot com crash of 2000, you better stay clear of all these web 2.0 IPOs until the companies’ profit picture is more clear.

LinkedIn is opening its doors to public investment (and scrutiny) on Thursday.  Its IPO is the hot topic today. It increased the offering price range from $32-$35 to $42-$45. It’s rare to see a company increasing the IPO price range by $10! It shows the real hot demand for a piece of LinkedIn. If all these hype reminds you of dot-com bubble of 90s, you are not alone. Many people think like that. This could be another hype that could end badly.

LinkedIn earned $15.4 million last year; its revenue was $243 million. If it can fetch $45 price tag per share, the market valuation would be approximately $4+ billion. In that case, market cap will be 258 times greater than 2010 profit and 17 times greater than 2010 revenues. LinkedIn warns that revenue gain would slow down this year and a loss is possible.

I am going to stay away from this IPO if the stock is priced at $45. You will see a lot of day traders hiking up the price on Thursday. Institutional investors that got into LinkedIn early also would try everything possible to hike up the first day price so that they can make huge profits. Invariably, the stock price will come down.

When Google went ahead with IPO, its market value was 16 times higher than previous year’s revenue. Google had better business model than LinkedIn. The hype surrounding LinkedIn is that it is the “first U.S. social media company going for IPO”. It doesn’t matter whether this is the first social media company or third one. What matters is how much money you can make if you buy the stock at inflated price.

The company’s stock ticker will be LNKD in New York Stock Exchange.