09:02 AM EDT, 08/08/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Energy stocks were advancing premarket Thursday with the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) recently up 0.7%.

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

Front-month US West Texas Intermediate crude oil was up 0.5% at $75.58 per barrel at the New York Mercantile Exchange. Global benchmark North Sea Brent crude oil gained 0.2% to $78.51 per barrel. Natural gas futures were down 1.4% at $2.082 per 1 million British Thermal Units.

CenterPoint Energy ( CNP ) shares advanced by over 3% after it priced an offering of about 9.8 million shares at $25.63 apiece, targeting gross proceeds of roughly $250 million.