Crude oil surged $2.53 to $98.03 per barrel in early trading Tuesday on a Texas refinery fire and concern OPEC will cut production at its March meeting.

A strong explosion Monday created a fire and shut off production at an oil refinery operated by Alon USA Energy (NYSE: ALJ) near Big Spring, Texas. The facility can refine 70,000 barrels of crude per day.

Heating oil jumped about 6 cents to $2.71 per gallon, unleaded gasoline surged about 7 cents to $2.56 per gallon, and natural gas rose 26 cents to $8.92 per million BTUs.

Independent energy trader Jim Dietz told BloggingStocks Tuesday that given the U.S.'s barely-adequate refining capacity, any incident in the refinery system can cause a price spike.

"There is so little spare capacity in the system, even a fire at a minor location can have traders flashing the buy card," Dietz said. "The U.S. has decided to allow new refinery construction, but the next new facility won't be ready for about 5 to 6 years. Expansions at existing refineries will provide some additional spare capacity later this year." Dietz added that he has no open daily positions, and is short oil with monthly contracts.

With markets continuing their downward spiral, many investors think that it's time to step up and start buying some stocks that have been beaten down. Here are two hot Israeli stocks that have been cool for investors during the recent market sell-off.

Amdocs Limited (NYSE: DOX) is the market leader in customer experience systems innovation, enabling world-leading service providers to deliver an integrated, innovative and intentional customer experience at every point of service. The stock has gotten hit of late, but with a PE of about 18 and a PEG slightly under 1, the stock is looking attractive.

With the news that Sprint/Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) is soft-launching a WiMax network, and picked communications software company Amdocs to build and maintain the Xohm Web portal and manage its customer service, billing, and other operations. The company is also gearing up to be the big winner in mobile phone billing as well, and that vertical could add significant revenue to the company.

Alon USA Energy, Inc. (NYSE: ALJ) engages in refining and marketing petroleum products primarily in the south central, southwestern, and western regions of the United States. The stock has gotten crushed as crude prices soared, losing more than 50% from its high. The company sports a low PE of just 6.25 and a PEG of 0.8. If crude prices stabilize, Alon will be a big winner.

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer's fund has a position and owns stock in both DOX and ALJ and is long them both.He has no positions in any other stock mentioned as of 1/9/08.