The market tried to hit a new two-plus-year high again today. Anything cautious for the markets is being discounted and valuation concerns are out the door. It seems the bulls are in charge -- regardless of what comes down the pipe in the Middle East, Japan, the PIIGS and elsewhere. Even a goal of only aiming to cut foreign energy dependence by one-third did not rattle markets. The TARP even made money. Maybe we can just convince Bernanke to go ahead and raise rates to get the pain over with, once and for all.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow Jones: 12,350.61 +71.60 (0.58%)

S&P500: 1,328.26 +8.82 (0.67%)

Nasdaq: 2,776,78 +19.90 (0.72%)

Top Analyst Calls

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE), which I first discussed here on November 8, 2010, at a price of $14.75, downtrended this winter in bear-hug fashion, trying investors' patience, but the stock appears to have held support near $11.60.

Note: I consider Clean Energy to be a high-risk stock not suitable for moderate or low-risk investors. Don't consider CLNE if you can't tolerate a 30% to 50% drop in the stock's price: it could happen.

Analyst Upgrades

• Barclays upgraded Western Digital (WDC) to overweight from equal weight.
• LDK Solar (LDK) was upgraded to buy from hold at Needham.
• Legg Mason (LM) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Agilent (A) was upgraded to buy from hold at Stifel Nicolaus.
• Wells Fargo upgraded Dean Foods (DF) to outperform from market perform and Developers Diversified (DDR) to market perform from underperform.
• Deutsche Bank also upgraded Developers Diversified, to buy from hold.
• Northrop Grumman (NOC) was upgraded to sell from conviction sell at Goldman.
• MYR Group (MYRG) was upgraded to buy from hold at BB&T.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage on BloggingStocks:

• Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF) lower Q3 results still topped expectations and sent shares higher.
• Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) posted much better-than-expected Q4 earnings, the first profit in a year.
• AstraZeneca (AZN) received an analyst's downgrade due to concerns over its earnings prospects.
• Blackstone Group (BX) received an analyst's upgrade following the company's Q3 results.
• Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) widened its net loss in Q3 and revenue and same-stores sales declined.
• Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (CLNE) shares declined after its Q3 numbers fell short of expectations.
• Consolidated Water Co. Inc. (CWCO) earnings prospects for 2010 earned it an analyst upgrade.

This oil trade takes the cake.

At the zenith of the speculative bubble in the oil patch -- when crude hit $147 per barrel in July -- you had everyone from T. Boone Pickens to Prince Alaweed touting $200-per-barrel oil by the end of the year.

Crude is now trading around $40 -- down $107 per barrel in less than six months. Unbelievable!

And this latest drop comes after OPEC voted to cut daily production by an eye-popping 4.2 billion barrels per day.

Looks like the world is awash in crude oil.

Needless to say, those euphoric longs in the oil stocks got destroyed. Most energy stocks lost 50% to 70% of their value during the course of the sell-off in crude.

And remember those television commercials with T. Boone and Chesapeake Energy (NYSE: CHK) CEO Aubrey McClendon pushing for the expansion of natural gas?

Well, natural gas prices are down 60% from their mid-year highs.

If you put money into T. Boone's Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (NASDAQ: CLNE) as recently as September, when the stock was trading at $20, you now own Mr. Pickens' vision for $5.

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.

MOST NOTEWORTHY:

• Benchmark started Oracle Corp (NASDAQ: ORCL) with a Hold rating.

• JP Morgan initiated Helicos BioSciences (NASDAQ: HLCS) with a Neutral rating based on the potential of its single-molecule genetic sequencing platform but noted that commercialization carries near-term risk.

• Hambrecht believes Clean Energy Fuels' (NASDAQ: CLNE) total addressable market is over $20B given the company's focus on natural gas vehicle fuel for return-to-base applications and started shares with a Buy rating.

• Jefferies wants to see China Sunergy (NASDAQ: CSUN) demonstrate that its silicon wafer suppliers can meet aggressive ramping plans before becoming more positive on the stock, starting shares off with a Hold rating...

• Lehman started Greenlight Capital Re (NASDAQ: GLRE) with an Equal Weight rating.

• Cellcom Israel (NYSE: CEL) and Partner Communications (NYSE: PTNR) were initiated with Buy ratings at Citigroup.

Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ: CLNE) accomplished a mildly solid showing with their IPO on Friday, although the project was scaled back from previous expectations. Well-known oil man T. Boone Pickens, principle shareholder of the company, had upped his expectations in March 2007 from $287.5 million initially to $354 million, as reported by Orange County Business Journal. The expected IPO share price had been in the $13 to $17 range on an anticipated volume of 20 million shares. On Friday, however, expectations were lowered and 10 million shares were sold at $12 and the shares rose in value marginally.

It's been speculated that economic conditions were mostly to blame for both the revised expectations as well as the tepid IPO performance. Clean Energy Fuels is an established company with at least some profitable history. The IPO is expected to fund growth in manufacturing capacity and product outlets, as well as to underwrite growth of the company's customer base. Clean Energy provides natural gas for municipal service trucks, buses, and other fleet vehicles. In 2006, Clean Energy had sales of $91 million but showed an operating loss of nearly $9 million. Currently the company has an estimated market value of about $600 million, and Mr. Pickens owns about 73% of the company.