Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of Gulf of Mexico oil and gas explorer McMoRan Exploration (NYSE: MMR) gushed to gains as large as 10.1% this morning on average trading volume.

So what: Oil and gas stocks are jumping all over the place thanks to upbeat consumer reports on a good Black Friday outing. Brent crude spot prices jumped 2.4% over the weekend, which is an unusually strong single-day move.

Now what: With many Mexican oil export ports closed due to inclement weather, other sources around the Gulf are able to charge even higher prices today. That includes this offshoot of the Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (NYSE: FCX) empire. Hence, Mexican Gulf explorers are jumping higher than the rest of the industry, led by small-cap Callon Petroleum (NYSE: CPE) gaining 13.3% and larger rival W&T Offshore (NYSE: WTI) at 11.1%. Not even a wayward analyst downgrade could keep buoyant W&T down today.

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