There's a big ballyhoo about oil these days. With the turmoil in the Middle East, especially in Libya, the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is priced over $100 per barrel. Gasoline at the pump is almost $4.00 per gallon.

Why then talk about an oil glut? We should first look at where our oil is coming from. Believe it or not, Canada is the biggest exporter of oil to the U.S. Canada is sending so much oil to the U.S. that our pipelines and storage facilities can't handle it. Reuters reports that our key storage facilities at Cushing Oklahoma are filled to capacity and are not equipped to handle the oil flow.

The story of the day is about oil. February contracts for Brent crude are trading at $98.03 per barrel, up 74 cents as of 10:15 a.m. EDT. The U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) is trading at $91.85 per barrel, up 42 cents. Brent crude is used primarily in Europe. The drive to $100 per barrel is due in part to severe winter conditions in Europe.

Here in the U.S., the Alaskan Pipeline, which has been closed since Saturday, has reopened but at a reduced rate. U.S. stockpiles fell 1.4 million barrels from, 335.3 million in the week ended January 7. This data was based on 17 analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

Analyst Upgrades

• Red Hat (RHT) and American Public (APEI) to outperform from sector perform at RBC Capital.
• KBR (KBR) and Foster Wheeler (FWLT) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Bio-Rad (BIO) to outperform from market perform at Leerink.
• Oceaneering (OII) to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• ASM International (ASMI) and Avid Technology (AVID) to overweight from neutral at JPMorgan.
• Dominion Resources (D) to equal weight from underweight at Morgan Stanley.
• Nationwide Health Properties (NHP) to buy from hold at Jefferies.
• Vivus (VVUS) to buy from underperform at BofA/Merrill.
• Intersil (ISIL) to buy from hold at Canaccord.

Analyst Upgrades

• State Street (STT) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Roth Capital upgraded Intel (INTC), Marvell Technology (MRVL) and Nvidia (NVDA) to buy from neutral.
• Bebe Stores (BEBE) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Janney Montgomery.
• W&T Offshore (WTI) was upgraded to buy from accumulate at Global Hunter.
• Citigroup upgraded International Rectifier (IRF) and Timberland (TBL) to hold from sell.
• Watson Pharma (WPI) was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Atmel (ATML) was upgraded to strong buy from buy at Needham.
• Ashford Hospitality (AHT) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Oppenheimer upgraded MetroPCS (PCS) to outperform from perform.

Analyst Upgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Varian Semi (VARI) to buy from hold following the company's Q2 results and raised its target for shares to $42 from $27.
• Baird upgraded CommScope (CTV) to outperform from neutral following the Q1 report, citing improved visibility and growth. The firm raised its price target to $39 from $28.
• Needham upgraded Build-A-Bear Workshop (BBW) to strong buy from buy. The firm is more positive on the stock following the company's Q1 results and keeps a $13 price target.
• Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Credit Suisse.
• Wynn Resorts (WYNN) was upgraded to neutral from underperform at Macquarie.
• UBS (UBS) was upgraded to market perform from underperform at FBR Capital.

"We are moving headlong into oil," notes John Reese, who analyzes stocks based on the criteria used by "legendary" investors such as Buffett, Graham and Lynch.

In his Validea newsletter, he says, "My fundamental models indicate that the oil industry is where the best values in the market are." Here's a look at W&T Offshore (NYSE: WTI), which is based on the criteria used by contrarian David Dreman.

"The economy and stock market have gone through a legitimate crisis because of the credit woes, and it takes time for something like that to work itself out.

"But the important thing to remember is that we've been through financial crises before -- even bad-debt financial crises like this one -- and the market has always stabilized and then pushed higher.

"And history has shown that those who can stick with the stock market through down times like these will be rewarded.

"David Dreman -- one of the gurus I base my strategies on -- notes in his recent Forbes column, 'If you pack up now, chances are you'll miss a good part of the next bull market. A large part of the gains are always made in the first few months of one, when market-timing investors are still on the sidelines.'