Energy stocks suffer broad beating as crude oil futures continue to sink

Shares of oil and gas companies were taking a broad beating ahead of Friday’s open, as growing concerns of a coming recession has sent crude oil futures CL00, -4.87% sinking toward an eight-month low. The SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF XLE, -5.32% slumped 3.2% in premarket trading, with all 21 components selling off, as crude futures shed 3.4% and while futures ES00, -1.08% for the S&P 500 SPX, -1.37% fell 1.4%. Within energy ETF, the biggest decliners were shares of Marathon Oil Corp. MRO, -7.40% and Devon Energy Corp. DVN, -6.76%, which both fell 4.0%. Among the more-active components, shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp. OXY, -4.36% slid 3.5% and Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM, -4.88% declined 2.9%. The best performer was Williams Companies Inc.’s stock WMB, -4.78%, which gave up 2.3%.