Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Aflac Inc. (NYSE: AFL) reported strong Q3 results, declared a dividend, and offered guidance for Q4.
• Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP) Q3 earnings slumped and revenue was hurt by currency translations.
• BP (NYSE: BP) shares leaped higher after it reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
• Daimler AG (NYSE: DAI) reported that it returned to profitability in Q3 but warned of decreasing revenue.
• General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) Q3 earnings beat expectations and it lifted its earnings outlook.
• Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) posted strong Q3 earnings and expects full-year earnings ahead of forecasts.

It was good news bad news for the steel industry Tuesday. AK Steel Holding Corp. (NYSE: AKS) and United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) both reported better-than-expected third-quarter results. But for U.S. Steel, it was the third straight quarterly loss as the economic downturn continued to drag down demand.

For the three months that ended in September, U.S. Steel said it lost $303 million, or $2.11 per share. That compares with a profit of $919 million, or $7.79 per share, in the same period of last year. Revenue for the quarter fell 61% to $2.82 billion. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a loss of $2.87 per share on revenue of $2.72 billion.

Analyst upgrades:

• Jefferies upgraded Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) to Buy from Hold after the firm's channel checks indicated the company's business is stabilizing. Jefferies raised its target on shares to $27 from $20.
• Citigroup upgraded Veeco (NASDAQ: VECO) to Buy from Hold on expectations LED order momentum will continue and cost discipline will help margin leverage. Citi raised its target on shares to $24 from $8.
• Deutsche Bank upgraded Domtar (NYSE: UFS) to Buy from Hold on expectations earnings will improve meaningfully over the next year. The firm keeps a $24 price target on the stock.
• Varian (NASDAQ: VARI) was upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays.
• Air Products (NYSE: APD) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at JPMorgan.
• U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.

Analyst upgrades:

• PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) was upgraded to Buy from Hold at Deutsche Bank.
• Fortress (NYSE: FIG) was upgraded at Citigroup to Hold from Sell.
• Prudential (NYSE: PUK) was lifted to Overweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.
• Keefe Bruyette upgraded Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN) to Outperform from Market Perform and added shares to their Best Ideas List on valuation as they see an attractive risk/reward at current levels.
• UBS upgraded ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML) to Buy from Neutral on valuation as they believe the company remains a market leader.
• Oppenheimer raised Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN) to Outperform from Perform on valuation following the recent weakness as they expect positive clinical news flow beginning in December.

Analyst downgrades:

• UBS downgraded U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) to Sell from Buy and lowered its target to $30 from $60 citing deteriorating U.S. conditions and concerns about the company's high fixed costs in a falling steel price environment.
• Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
  
• China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) was lowered to Underweight from Neutral at JP Morgan.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says stocks are at insane value levels, but they'll drift lower until we get capitulation.

Go down, stay down. Find a level. Stop the nonsense with the futures. Wash 'em out. Capitulate.

These are everyone's sentiments today as we see the same thing play out over and over on the downside. We can't even remember what the "victory" of being down "only" 300 was Friday given that here we are right back on the red-hot griddle touching lower levels again today.

The volume of bad news is so overwhelming that we forget that there have been whole markets taken down at other times by a collapse of an emerging market or two, and now we have several runs on the IMF bank a week! Ukraine? How did Ukraine get in trouble? Hungary?

Oh shoot, I bet Switzerland's in trouble.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says U.S. Steel is a puzzle, and he ponders how to play it here.

U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) (Cramer's Take) presents the ultimate conundrum. It is hitting on all cylinders, courtesy of the incredible demand for steel domestically because of pipelines. And it is finally not suffering from dumped imports, because the dumpers are from countries growing so much faster than we are that they need all the steel they can get - China, for example, is struggling to build its own share instead of dumping.

John Surma, the CEO, has taken this once-great company right back to greatness with a rise from $9 to $127 in five years. That defies gravity. He has done that by cutting labor costs and growing the business, he has done it by emphasizing areas he can dominate and cutting ones he can t. And he has done it by taking advantage of the 30 bankruptcies in this sector, leaving him one of the few publicly traded companies left, including Nucor (NYSE: NUE) (Cramer's Take), which is a great company, AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) (Cramer's Take), which levitates all of the time on takeover talk and then DOESN'T come in, and Reliance (NYSE: RS) (Cramer's Take), which is another fave of mine.

United States Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) opened at $109.30. So far today the stock has hit a low of $107.80 and a high of $109.31 As of 10:55, X is trading at $108.06, down $2.01 (-1.8%).

The stock has been rising steadily in recent months, hitting a one-year high of $113.84 last week. US Steel has priced $1.1 billion of senior unsecured notes to redeem higher interest currently outstanding notes due in 2010 and to finance part of its Lone Star Technologies acquisition. Recent technical indicators for X have been bullish but deteriorating slightly, while S&P gives the stock a positive 4 STARS (out of 5) buy rating.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a July bear-call credit spread above the $115 range. X has not been above $115 ever and has shown resistance around $112. This trade could be risky if the economy sparks to life again, but even if this happens, the stock would have to rise by 20.1% before we would be in trouble. Plus, X is not expected to report their next quarter's results until late July after expiration.

Brent Archer is an options analyst and writer at Investors Observer. DISCLOSURE: Mr. Archer owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that may include holdings in companies he writes about. At publication time, Brent neither owns nor controls a position in X.

Volatility Index S&P 500 Options-VIX down 0.69 to 14.45

Dendreon-(NYSE-DNDN) spreaders active on differentiated option prices on FDA Advisory. DNDN is recently up $8.78 to at $13.91. The FDA Advisory Panel say's DNDN's Provenge is safe for prostate cancer and recommended the agency approve the treatment. DNDN Provenge has a May 15th PDUFA date. McAdams Wright Ragen say's "it remains uncertain whether the FDA will want to see results of the ongoing IMPACT study, due to be completed in 2010, before granting approval." DNDN call option volume of 76,792 contracts compares to put volume of 56. ,655 contracts. DNDN April option implied volatility is at 150, May is at 200 & August is at 130 according to Track Data. DND puts are bid higher than calls because DNDN is difficult to borrow.

Note: The Daily Option Update is provided by Stock Options Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Option volume leaders today are: U.S. Steel (NYSE-X), Dendreon (NASDAQ-DNDN) and Sunocor (NYSE-SUN).