Closing Bell: Despite hurricane and oil, Dow gains

For all practical purposes, today was a win when you consider how Hurricane Gustav's threat to the oil infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico is looking like a real scare. The August 5 FOMC Minutes showed very little chance that rate hikes are imminent, but they showed a clueless Fed.

Surprisingly, there was a slight improvement in consumer confidence, and new home sales in July rose slightly on falling prices. Below are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA 11,413.11 (+26.86)
NASDAQ 2,361.97 (-3.62)
S&P 500 1,271.39 (+4.55)
10YR T-NOTE 3.784% (-0.007%)
52-week lows
Top Analyst Calls

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) rose 6% to $61.54 after the company said that it was going to buy back up to $5 billion common stock, or 18% of the company, out to August 2011. The company is also increasing its capital spending plan for 2009 and beyond.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) rose more than 10% to $15.65 after the close because Jim Cramer called this one as having government backing since Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband invested $50,000 to $100,000 in this stock in 2007.

Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) traded higher by more than 6% to $28.18 after announcing that it was going to buy back up to $1 billion in common stock after its $1 billion buy-back plan from November 2007 has already been utilized.