Here at the Fool, we've searched high and low across the Web to find the stories that will matter the most to you today. We hope you find this Wednesday edition informative.

1. More pain in commercial real estate?
A Federal Reserve presentation notes that banks are slow to take losses on commercial real estate loans, and it warns that they're recognizing the severity of the losses just as slowly as they recognized the troubles in residential real estate. This news should dovetail nicely with all those recent upgrades of the banking industry. (Read more at The Wall Street Journal.)

2. Gold reaches all-time highs
Gold futures soared above $1,040 yesterday, a record high. The widely traded SPDR Gold Shares (NYSE:GLD) ETF rose by nearly 2.5%. (Read more at Bloomberg.)

3. Credit card debt on the decline
Is cash making a comeback? It seems that consumers are taking that whole credit-crunch thing to heart. Credit Karma reports that from June to September, we've whittled down our overall credit card debt by 4%. Got debt? Go ahead and copy off our homework with our 60-second get-out-of-debt cheat sheet.

4. Mobile race heats up
The race to displace Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone as the king of the mobile world keeps getting more intriguing. Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) just announced a partnership with Verizon (NYSE:VZ) Wireless to create wireless devices that use its Android platform. Meanwhile, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) announced that 30 types of handset will use its new version of Windows Mobile by the end of the year. (Read more at The Wall Street Journal or BusinessWeek.)

5. Earnings season kicks off
Alcoa (NYSE:AA) releases earnings today after the market closes. Expect the usual slate of experts to be on the air tomorrow, telling us whether their earnings foreshadow a sharp rebound or doom. (Read more at Barron's.)

And that's your Wednesday morning recap. If you have a chance, please mention other stories in the comments box below. With so many great articles published each day, this is just a slim collection of what's going on in the investing world.

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