Sector Update: Energy Stocks Fall Pre-Bell Thursday

09:25 AM EDT, 09/17/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were falling pre-bell Thursday, with the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) declining by 0.8%. The United States Oil Fund (USO) was down 1.7% and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was 0.5% lower. Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was 2.6% lower at $99.76 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil fell 3.5% to $102.14 per barrel, and natural gas futures were down 0.6% at $2.87 per 1 million British Thermal Units. Petrobras (PBR) has renewed and expanded its agreement with Computer Modelling for software licensing and support by five years, the Canada-based software and consulting company said. Shares of Petrobras were down 1% premarket. BP (BP) is set to resume talks with the United Steelworkers union representing workers at its Whiting refinery on Thursday, the company said. BP stock was 0.9% lower pre-bell.