Analyst Upgrades

• JPMorgan upgraded Dollar Tree (DLTR) to neutral from underweight and $48 price target.
• Credit Suisse upgraded Time Warner Cable (TWC) to outperform from neutral and raised its price target to $70 from $59, citing growth in wireline HST demand.
• Needham upgraded NetScout (NTCT) to buy from hold with a $29 price target, citing channel checks that indicate industry spending on network monitoring software may be improving.
• Nstar (NST) was upgraded to buy from neutral at BofA/Merrill.
• Novo Nordisk (NVO) was upgraded to hold from sell at Societe Generale.
• Air France-KLM (AFLYY) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Credit Suisse.

"The "golden" days lie ahead for silver and investors who get exposure to this commodity and stocks in the sector; in my view, there is no better silver miner than the 119 year old Hecla Mining (HL)," says Ian Wyatt.

The editor of Top Stock Insights explains, "The company is one of the oldest miners in the U.S. and operates in Alaska and Idaho.

"Over the past 12 months, silver has lagged increases in gold by a large margin and that will not last. Investors buy silver for the same reason as gold, inflation.

Hecla Mining (HL) closed at $6.28. Gold is recently down 0.66% to 1133.70 according to Bloomberg. Hecla Mining December and January option implied volatility of 80 is near its 26-week average of 82 according to Track Data, suggesting non-directional price movement.

Monster Worldwide (MWW) closed at $16.29. MWW December option implied volatility is at 60, January is at 57; versus its 26-week average of 57. Options were active on November 18 on volume of 56,606 contracts according to Track Data. Average daily volume is 12,750 contracts according to IVolatility.

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

With gold and silver prices testing new highs, we turn to several leading resource experts -- Mary Anne and Pamela Aden, Mark Skousen and Larry Edelson -- for their favorite plays in the sector.

In The Aden Forecast, the Aden sisters explain, "Gold and silver recently moved well into record high territory, and it looks like they are poised to head even higher.

"Most impressive, gold's leading indicator still has room to rise further before it reaches the high area. This tells us that gold's current C rise is very strong and it's now likely headed to our next target level near $1200. Meanwhile, December gold will remain super strong above $1,020.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: AstraZeneca plc (AZN), Aeroflex Inc (ARXX), Symantec Corp (SYMC), Chevron Corp (CVX) and Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM) were just some of today's noteworthy downgrades:

• HSBC downgraded shares of AstraZeneca plc (NYSE: AZN) to Neutral from Overweight as the firm believes investors will have to wait until 2009 for the company to start benefiting from its strategy.

• Aeroflexx Inc (NASDAQ: ARXX) was cut to Hold from Buy at Jefferies with a $14 target based on valuation.

• Thomas Weisel downgraded shares of Symantec Corp (NASDAQ: SYMC) to Market Weight from Overweight citing a lack of near-term catalysts and increased risk from transitions in its business model.

• Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX) was removed from AG Edwards' Focus Portfolio. The firm believes Chevron offers less upside potential than other companies in the sector.

• Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) was downgraded to Hold from Buy on valuation and its balanced risk/reward profile...

OTHER DOWNGRADES:

• Piper Jaffray cut Juniper Networks, Inc (NASDAQ: JNPR) to Market Perform from Outperform with a $20 target.

• Friedman Billings downgraded L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc (NYSE: LLL) to Market Perform from Outperform.

• MedImmune, Inc (NASDAQ: MEDI) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Lehman.

• Hecla Mining Co (NYSE: HL) was cut to Sector Underperformer from Sector Performer at CIBC based on valuation.

• Merrill Lynch cut Wendy's International (NYSE: WEN) to Sell from Neutral.

• Stanford downgraded shares of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc (NASDAQ: SIRI) to Hold from Buy with a $3 target.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Strattec Security Corp (STRT), Palm, Inc (PALM), Netflix, inc (NFLX), J.C. Penney Co, Inc (JCP) and Marriott International Inc (MAR) were some of today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Baird upgraded shares of Strattec Security Corp (NASDAQ: STRT) to Neutral from Underperform following its Q3 report.

• Shares of Palm, Inc (NASDAQ: PALM) were raised to Equal Weight from Underweight at Lehman Bros.

• Banc of America upgraded Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) to Neutral from Sell based on valuation.

• J.C. Penney Co Inc (NYSE: JCP) was raised to Strong Buy from Accumulate with a $105 target at Buckingham, citing strategic merchandise, flow and cycle-timing initiatives.

• Wachovia believes that as the lodging cycle matures, Marriott International's (NYSE: MAR) diversified fee-based, unit-driven model will outperform relative to pure hotel-owned companies, and upgraded shares to Outperform from Market Perform.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• Goldman Sachs upgraded CNOOC Ltd (NYSE: CEO) to Buy from Neutral.

• JMP Securities raised Packeteer, Inc's (NASDAQ: PKTR) rating to Market Perform from Underperform.

• Oppenheimer upgraded Playtex Products, Inc (NYSE: PYX) to Buy from Neutral on its acquisition of Tiki Hut, strong fundamentals and realistic investor expectations.

• JP Morgan upgraded shares of American Standard Cos Inc (NYSE: ASD) to Overweight from Neutral.

• Matrix USA raised the rating of Hecla Mining Co (NYSE: HL) to Hold from Sell.

• Shares of VCA Antech, Inc (NASDAQ: WOOF) were upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Morgan Keegan.

Analyst summaries provided by TheFlyOnTheWall.com (subscription required).

With gold turning down from its recent highs, some have questioned whether the 6-year bull market in metals may be ending. According to Mary Anne and Pamela Aden, the evidence points to the opposite conclusion. Indeed, they note, "Gold and silver have everything going for them and their rises have a lot further to go."

Here, the resource experts and co-editors of The Aden Forecast explain the six key factors they see that are pointing to higher metals prices.

The first two reasons are spending and money. They explain, "The world is swimming in money and that's the fuel that's been driving money assets and commodity prices up. But the magnitude of what's currently happening has never been seen before in world history."

The Adens points out that the U.S. is the world's largest debtor nation and "the government keeps spending money it doesn't have."

Since the government doesn't want to cut spending or raise taxes to reduce its debt, they note, "It simply produces money to cover its expenses, which is what governments throughout history have always done, and this amount is also huge."

In fact, in just over the past year, they observe, the amount of paper dollars that've been created is equal to half the value of all the gold that's ever been produced worldwide over the past 2,000 years, which is about $2 trillion. And it's not just the U.S. "Other countries are pumping out money like mad too. In Europe, for instance, money has been growing at the fastest rate in 17 years."