Oil Slides Under $100, Pulling Energy Stocks Lower

WTI fell 2.6% to $99.76 a barrel and Brent dropped 3.5%, while Petrobras and BP shares slipped premarket.

What’s going on here?

Oil slipped back under $100 a barrel on Thursday, and energy stocks moved with it: WTI fell 2.6% to $99.76.

What does this mean?

This wasn’t just a one-contract move. Brent dropped 3.5% to $102.14, and energy-related funds tracking crude slid too.

Lower crude prices can quickly dent investors’ expectations for near-term cash generation at producers and refiners, which helps explain why individual names like Petrobras and BP were lower early on.

Still, the day’s tape wasn’t purely about oil. Petrobras also renewed and expanded a five-year software licensing and support deal with Canada-based Computer Modelling, while BP said it would resume talks Thursday with the United Steelworkers union at its Whiting refinery. Those kinds of operational and labor updates can move single stocks even when the whole sector is being pushed around by the commodity.

Why should I care?

For markets: WTI at $99.76 can turn a fundamentals move into an options-led one.

Round numbers like $100 often line up with heavily traded crude options, which can change how market makers hedge. When prices cross a big strike, their hedging can add extra buying or selling pressure, mechanically exaggerating the day’s swing without any new long-term supply-demand story.

That’s one reason broad “energy beta” products can feel jumpier than you’d expect from the day’s headlines alone, especially in the front-month contract where trading is most intense.

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Originally Posted September 17, 2026 – Oil Slides Under $100, Pulling Energy Stocks Lower