Big Rally for Crude Futures

However, an oil official from Saudi Arabia, the biggest crude exporter, made statements in The Wall Street Journal that his country would cut output to keep prices strong.

Turning to the chartists, at least one spies an interesting trading opportunity if the price of oil slides back to the levels seen earlier in the month.

Marc Eckelberry, a Los Angeles-based futures trader and author of the AheadoftheNews.com markets blog, says $54 a barrel for crude is "pretty critical support" at this point. "If we break below that we will revisit the lower $50s." Eckelberry sees weekly resistance at $56.85 followed by $58.

In the energy patch, Bear Stearns upgraded shares of Tesoro Petroleum(TSO Quote) to outperform from peer perform, helping boost the stock 4.9%.

Eagle Rock Energy Partners(EROC Quote) got dinged with a downgrade from Wachovia. The firm now rates Eagle Rock a market perform, down from outperform, and shares were recently off 1.6% at $18.70.

Friedman Billings Ramsey downgraded shares of coal producer Massey Energy(MEE Quote) to a market perform rating from outperform, but the stock traded higher anyway, up 1.7%.

As for the major producers, Royal Dutch Shell(RDS.A Quote) was moving up 1%, while ConocoPhillips(COP Quote) was ahead by 1.3%.

Energy exchange-traded funds iPath Goldman Sachs Crude Oil(OIL Quote) and U.S. Oil(USO Quote) were up 5.6% and 5.2%, respectively.