Mixed Day on the Energy Front

The Colonial pipeline, which supplies 100 million gallons of gasoline and other petroleum products a day to key markets in the southeast U.S., is reportedly reopening some sections after being entirely shut-in on Tuesday. A Colonial representative didn't elaborate on what caused the pipeline problem.

"There remains lots of crude stock in the system, so the stoppage of the Colonial pipeline didn't do much," Meir said. "If problems persist over the next few days, they may begin to have more of an effect on futures prices."

Elsewhere, Royal Dutch Shell(RDS.A Quote)announced that it was working to restart its pipeline that supplies 150,000 barrels a day to the Bonny oil export terminal in Nigeria. The pipeline was sabotaged by protestors on Wednesday.

Also in Nigeria, four Americans who had been taken hostage by rebel groups were released. Still though, 20 foreign workers remain in the hands of militants.

The CBOE Oil Index eased 0.2% to 735.56. ConocoPhillips (COP Quote) gained 0.2% to $77.43. Chevron (CVX Quote) dropped 0.9% to $81.49. Exxon Mobil(XOM Quote) fell 1% to $83.17.

Bank of America Securities downgraded a swath of ethanol stocks, saying that expected production growth will likely hurt profit margins.

Andersons (ANDE Quote) was downgraded to neutral from buy, while Verasun Energy (VSE Quote), Pacific Ethanol (PEIX Quote) and Aventine Renewable Energy (AVR Quote) were all cut to sell from neutral.