Oil Overcomes Early Slide

Turning to the chart-watchers, at least one sees some bullish signs in the gas segment of the energy complex.

"With the slope changing from down to flat, the technical picture for natural gas has improved considerably," writes John Roque, an analyst at Natexis Bleichroeder in New York.

In particular, he highlights recent higher highs in the momentum indicator for the Amex Natural Gas Index. "We were surprised at the constructive nature of this chart, especially since the underlying commodities had been acting so poorly," he says.

He also says a pop back up to $78 a share for producer Apache(APA Quote) "seems doable." The stock last saw such a price in the fall of 2005.

The Amex Natural Gas index was up 0.5%, while Apache gained 0.2%.

Meanwhile, RealMoney.com contributor Helene Meisler cautions that the recent run-up in natural gas, which was trading around $6.23 per million BTUs last Wednesday, is "unlikely to continue at this pace."

In the energy complex, UBS raised its rating on Norsk Hydro(NHY Quote) to buy from neutral, helping rally the shares 2.4%.

HSBC Securities bumped up its rating on shares of Royal Dutch Shell(RDS.A Quote) to neutral from underweight. That and better crude prices lifted the stock 0.2%.

Banc of America reiterated buy ratings on Valero Energy(VLO Quote) and Sunoco (SUN Quote). Shares of Sunoco were up 0.7%, while Valero added 1.1%.

Elsewhere, oil behemoth Conoco Phillips(COP Quote) reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.91 a share, down from $2.61 a year ago. Sales fell 19%. Shares of Conoco were higher by 1%.