While this article is a few days old, I still found its message rather interesting. Jeff Cox's article takes a look at the U-6 number of unemployment. This number is the "broadest" measure of unemployment, and it shows that roughly 17.5% of Americans are either without a job or underemployed. This is the highest reading since the U-6 number became an official labor statistic in 1994. The U-3 rate (which is what most investors follow) came in at 10.2% in October, which was the highest reading since June 1983.

Last summer, eBay (EBAY) launched its iPhone app, which turned into an instant hit. If anything, it showed that mobile commerce was not a pipe dream as the downloads reached more than five million.

So, in anticipation of the Christmas shopping season, eBay has launched a new iPhone app. It's called "Deals."

While Timothy Geithner gets deservedly raked over the coals for handling the America International Group (AIG) "negotiations" with kid gloves, federal officials are pressuring executive pay czar Kenneth Feinberg to ease pay restrictions on the company for the year 2010.

The concern is that tight pay restrictions, while politically popular, might hurt AIG's ability to attract and retain competent people -- thereby putting the taxpayers' long-term investment in the company at even greater risk.

It's a megatrend: the convergence of mobile devices and broadcast television. Keep in mind that worldwide sales of mobile phones hit 1.3 billion last year. Moreover, the growth should continue, especially in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East, South America and even Africa. Thus, by delivering TV on mobile devices, the media industry can greatly expand its market.

But, there is a need for some critical technologies. And one of the leaders in the arena is Telegent Systems, which has filed to go public this week.

Google (GOOG) just picked up another promising startup in its effort to gain some ground in the online visual advertising market. Teracent, which was formed three years ago, is becoming part of the search engine giant.

Yahoo! (YHOO) currently leads the market in display advertising sales, and Google has been trying push into the space. Last year, this led to its acquisition of online ad service DoubleClick, but that was a first step rather than a total solution to Google's display ad ambitions.

Playboy Enterprises (PLA) announced Tuesday that it will outsource all of its publishing operations -- save editorial -- to American Media Inc., reports the Wall Street Journal (subscription required). The Florida-based firm will take the reins on Playboy's production, circulation, advertising sales, marketing, and support functions, in exchange for fees and incentives. No further financial details on the deal were provided.

"Our goal is to focus our resources on what we do best, which is to create compelling content," explained CEO Scott Flanders. "By joining forces with American Media, we will be able to significantly reduce our cost structure and leverage the economies of scale related to manufacturing, distribution and marketing that are available to this large, multi-title publisher."

Analyst upgrades:

• Wells Fargo upgraded Prudential (PRU) to outperform from market perform. The firm thinks the company is in a better position than its peers and will be able to more effectively exploit M&A opportunities.
• UBS upgraded Reliance Steel (RS) to buy from neutral based on potential growth through M&A and valuation. The firm raised its target to $50 from $49.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Eastman Chemical (EMN) to buy from hold on expectations the company's portfolio transformation will drive higher normalized earnings power, which the firm believes is not fully reflected in consensus estimates. Deutsche raised its target price on shares to $70 from $62.
• Amylin Pharma (AMLN) was upgraded to overweight from equal weight at Barclays.
• Cephalon (CEPH) was upgraded to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Acuity Brands (AYI) was upgraded to outperform from perform at Oppenheimer.

Chinese stocks fell sharply on Tuesday. The catalyst was a call by bank regulators to raise more capital. Chinese banks will be required to raise $43 billion in new capital. Regulators have asked big banks to formulate plans for raising this new capital.

Bank lending in China surged this year, with some of this capital fueling the surge in Chinese stock prices. The Shanghai Composite hit a three-month high on Monday, up 77% for the year.

Discount retailer Dollar Tree (DLTR), which sells everything for a dollar or less, reported third-quarter earnings Tuesday morning. The company earned 76 cents per share during the quarter, nearly 62% higher than last year's same-quarter earnings. Sales for the quarter increased by more than 12% to $1.25 billion from $1.11 billion in sales from last year.

Dollar Tree beat the Street's earnings expectation of 66 cents per share by a dime and topped and revenue expectations of $1.24 billion. "I am pleased with our third quarter performance," said CEO Bob Sasser in a statment. "Sales and earnings were above plan." Solid earnings from a company specializing in cheap prices during a recession -- is anyone really surprised?

Retail HOLDRS (RTH), an undivided index of retail merchandisers, closed at $94.61. RTH overall option implied volatility of 20 is below its 26-week average of 24, according to Track Data, suggesting decreasing price movement.

Gold Fields (GFI) closed $14.74. Gold is recently up 0.52% to $1170, according to Bloomberg. Gold Fields is an unhedged producer of gold. December and January option implied volatility of 48 is below its 26-week average of 54, according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

H.J. Heinz Co. (HNZ), one of the world's largest food companies, is scheduled to discuss its fiscal second-quarter 2010 financial results in a conference call Tuesday, November 24, at 8:30 AM ET, hosted by CEO William R. Johnson. You can see the accompanying slides on the company's website.

During the three months that ended in October, Heinz partnered with the World Food Program and also declared a quarterly dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the Pittsburgh-based company to report that earnings for the period fell 19.5% from a year ago to $0.70 per share. But revenue for the quarter is expected to total $2.6 billion, about the same as last year.

Medtronic Inc. (MDT), a leading maker of implantable biomedical devices, is scheduled to release its fiscal second-quarter financial results Tuesday, November 24, before the market open, and then to discuss those results in a webcast at 8:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast at the company's website.

During the three months that ended in October, Medtronic was once again named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, settled a patent lawsuit, and announced management changes. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect this Minneapolis-based company to report that earnings for the period rose 9.5% from a year ago to $0.74 per share. And revenue for the quarter is expected to be 5.0% higher to $3.8 billion.

So remember when a bunch of banks got into trouble because they were overly-reliant on short-term debt and when they couldn't refinance it quickly, they had to either file for bankruptcy protection or get bailed out?

The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "Moody's Investors Service research shows that the average maturity of U.S. banks' wholesale debt has fallen to 3.8 years, from 5.8 years in 2006 and 7.8 years in 2002. These banks face $2 trillion of wholesale debt maturities through 2015, but about three-quarters of this amount comes due by the end of 2012."

Once a dominant global tech company, Nortel is now in the grueling process of liquidating its assets. For example, over the weekend the company conducted an auction to unload its Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) division.

The winner? It was Ciena (CIEN), which has agreed to shell out $769 million for the asset. The other bidder was Nokia Siemens.

It was a heated auction, as Ciena's original bid was at $521 million.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX - option chain) stock is trading lower today after an article in Barron's (subscription required) over the weekend said the company could see trouble ahead if its experimental epilepsy drug, which is undergoing the regulatory review process, is not profitable enough to offset declining royalties from its hepatitis C treatment. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on VRX.

This morning, VRX opened at $32.15. So far today the stock has hit a high of $32.95 and a low of $31.88. As of 11:30, VRX is trading at $32.07, down $1.21 (-3.6%). The chart for VRX looks bullish.