The price of crude oil surged early Monday, pushing the Dow higher and offering a new wrinkle for investors as an unexpected oil supply cut from OPEC+ over the weekend shook markets to start the second quarter.

Shortly after the opening bell on Monday, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) was up 0.4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was higher by just over 1%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was lower by 0.4%.

Crude oil was higher by about 6% early Monday, with WTI crude oil — the U.S. benchmark — trading near $80 a barrel while the international benchmark price, Brent crude oil, was trading near $85 a barrel.

A nearly 5% gain in shares of Chevron (CVX) helped the Blue Chip Dow lead markets to start the week.

On Sunday, the OPEC+ oil cartel — which includes OPEC members plus Russia — announced it would cut daily production by more than 1 million barrels of oil beginning in May and running through the end of the year.

"Even though, like OPEC, we expect only subdued demand growth this year, the scale of supply cuts will send the oil market balance into a deficit in 2023, with an even larger deficit in Q4," wrote Caroline Bain, chief commodities economist at Capital Economics, in a note to clients on Monday.

Last month, the price of oil dropped to an 18-month low as a glut of supply and fears over the global economy shook the oil market. Additionally, a surge in the dollar as investor concern rose over the banking crisis pressured oil.

But as worries over an acute financial crisis worldwide have ebbed, the dollar has eased and WTI rose by nearly $10/barrel over the final two weeks of March.

A renewed surge in oil prices also potentially complicates the task ahead for the Federal Reserve, which has raised interest rates in a bid to lower inflation. Although the Fed's preferred inflation measures strip out the costs of food and gas, a marked rise in so-called "headline" inflation — which includes energy prices — could complicate the messaging on a pause in interest rate increases later this year.