09:07 AM EDT, 03/19/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were leaning lower premarket Tuesday as the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) was down 0.3% recently.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was 0.2% lower and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was up 1.0%.

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 0.1% at $82.07 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil lost 0.1% to $86.82 per barrel. Natural gas futures were 2.9% higher at $1.752 per 1 million British Thermal Units.

Dril-Quip ( DRQ ) was up more than 1% after saying it agreed to merge with Innovex Downhole Solutions in an all-stock transaction.