08:55 AM EDT, 05/02/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks rose in pre-bell activity Thursday, with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) recently advancing by 0.5%.

The United States Oil Fund (USO) was 0.4% higher, and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was up 2.3%.

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.8% at $79.64 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark Brent gained 0.9% to $84.17 per barrel, and natural-gas futures were up 2.7% at $1.98 per 1 million BTU.

Shell (SHEL) was up more than 1% after it reported Q1 adjusted earnings of $1.20 per share, down from $1.39 a year earlier but still beating the $1 forecast from three analysts polled by Capital IQ.