Sector Update: Energy

09:06 AM EDT, 08/25/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were falling premarket Tuesday, with the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) declining by 1.5%. The United States Oil Fund (USO) was down 3.3% and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was 2.5% lower. Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was 3.1% lower at $82.38 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil lost 3.1% to $89.33 per barrel, and natural gas futures were down 2.8% at $2.71 per 1 million British Thermal Units. Equinor (EQNR) plans to boost production outside Norway to 950,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030, while generating $20 billion of free cash flow from 2026 to 2030, said the oil giant's executive vice president, Philippe Mathieu. Shares of Equinor were down more than 1% pre-bell.