Oil's Gains Wiped Out

There were a number of factors supporting the move higher, according to Flynn. First were last week's inventory numbers released by the Energy Information Administration, which showed larger-than-expected draws from storage. The second was the latest monthly report by the International Energy Agency, which suggests that OPEC will soon need to boost oil exports to keep the market in balance.

News that oil tankers were unable to enter the Houston shipping channel because of fog and that a fire had broken out at a Venezuelan refinery over the weekend also influenced the markets, Flynn said

The spread between the April (near-term) crude contract and the May crude futures contract is now greater than $2. The abnormally large spread is due to refineries reducing their purchases of crude because of increased maintenance during April, according to Bentz.

Elsewhere, energy stocks were mostly higher. The iPath Goldman Sachs Crude Oil (OIL Quote) ETF fell 0.8% to $35.78.

ExxonMobil(XOM Quote) was down 1.4%. ConocoPhillips (COP Quote) slipped 1.0%, and Chevron (CVX Quote) was 1.4% lower.

Among other movers, electricity provider Entergy (ETR Quote) was upgraded by Jeffries from hold to buy. Its stock was 0.6% lower at $98.55.

Oil transport firm Tsakos Energy (TNP Quote) was downgraded by Forks Bank from buy to hold, but its stock moved 15 cents higher to $47.64.