I'm Reiterating my Buy rating for Central Garden & Pet Company (NASDAQ: CENT), first recommended on June 22, 2009 at a price of $10.16.

Central's stock has re-trenched to about $12 after breaking out to the upside above $14 this summer. For now, the narrative remains the same -- that CENT, which receives about 50% of its revenue from pet products/care, will not suffer the fate of other retail plays, under the thesis that the now 'frugal consumer' Americans will give up a lot before giving up their pets.

It goes without saying that pets such as dogs and cats are treated as extended members of the family in the United States.

Still, the pet care sector has seen its share of volatility, and has not been a preferred sector in these circles. But there are exceptions, and the Central Garden & Pet Company (NASDAQ: CENT) is one.

Analyst upgrades

• Oppenheimer upgraded Savient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SVNT) to Perform from Underperform after the FDA's Arthritis Advisory Committee voted 14-1 in favor of approving Krystexxa for gout.
• Banc of America/Merrill upgraded Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) to Buy from Underperform and raised its target to $27 from $18 based on expectations that margin expansion will be higher than Street expectations.
• UBS said Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has limited downside risk given the improved outlook for the graphics processor market and professional solutions business. Shares were upgraded to Neutral from Sell and its target was raised to $11.50 from $8.
• BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Macquarie.
• Neutral Tandem (NASDAQ: TNDM) was upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Baird.
• Central Garden & Pet (NASDAQ: CENT) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust.

Today was yet another day where Joe Public felt like he spent a round in the ring with Joe Lewis. It's getting that way again, and now the only real positive is that contrarians may start to get happy.

Oil jumped back up another $5.00 per barrel on inventory numbers reported this morning. The continued weak environment sent financials and airlines into the dirt again. PIMCO's McCulley said he believes that the Fed is understating inflation and the Fed's Beige Book hinted that some higher costs are beginning to be passed down to consumers.

Here are the unofficial closes of major US index levels:
DJIA 12082.14 (-207.62)
S&P500 1335.56 (-22.88)
NASDAQ 2394.01 (-54.93)
10YR T-NOTE 4.07% (-0.026%)
Top 10 Analyst Calls

Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. (NYSE: BUD) saw another big pickup in its call options activity today and then CNBC's David Faber said that InBev in Europe may be close to making an unsolicited bid for the company. Shares were up about 2.3% at $58.45 in the final minutes of the day.

The notes out of the Fed gave no indication of rate cuts. Too much worry about inflation.

After a report showing that supplies have dropped, oil traded north of $132.00 per barrel today. Maybe T. Boone Pickens' call for $150 oil was intended to be by the end of the month rather than the end of the year. The minutes from the last FOMC meeting may say it all: increased inflation expectations, increased unemployment expectations, lowered GDP expectations. But no recession, at least not officially while the Fed describes the environment of stagflation. Below are the unofficial closing US index levels:

DJIA: 12,602.66 down 1.76%
S&P500: 1,390.86 down 1.59%
NASDAQ: 2,448.27 down 1.77%
52-WEEK LOWS
TOP 10 ANALYST CALLS

AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) saw shares fall a sharp 25% after the company announced at its annual shareholder meeting that it was going to slash 11% or 12% from its flight capacity. To make bad matters worse, Soleil issued an untimely downgrade of the sector today.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: Micron, China Sunergy and Medtronic were today's noteworthy upgrades:

• Deutsche Bank upgraded shares of Micron (NYSE: MU) to Buy from Hold as they believe improved pricing and the company's cost reductions should drive a strong margin recovery. The firm raised MU's target to $11 from $7.
  
• Jefferies raised China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN) to Hold from Underperform following the company's Q1 beat to reflect its improved outlook for the production of higher efficiency cells and better controls over cash flow measures.
  
• Goldman raised Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) to Buy from Neutral based on potential earnings upside from strong market share and broad distribution.

OTHER UPGRADES:

• UBS upgraded National Fuel Gas (NYSE: NFG) to Buy from Neutral.
  
• Arris (NASDAQ: ARRS) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at Friedman Billings.
  
• Piper upgraded Central Garden & Pet (NASDAQ: CENT) to Buy from Neutral.