Crude oil is sending a message that the stock market can no longer ignore.
Brent crude (BZ=F) briefly pushed back above $100 per barrel on Friday, while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) climbed into the mid-$90s. Both benchmarks are up about 40% since the beginning of March — and the month isn’t even halfway over.
The move suggests the market is resetting to higher oil prices, with Brent around $80 and WTI around $75 starting to look more like technical floors than ceilings.
For years, energy was easy to ignore — a laggard, a value trap, or at best a tactical bounce. But this time, the move in crude is colliding with a different setup in stocks. At the beginning of the year, the State Street Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) broke out of a trading range that had held for more than two decades.
The catch for investors is that energy is not one trade.
Start with the backbone. Big integrated names like Exxon Mobil (XOM), Chevron (CVX), and ConocoPhillips (COP) form the core of the large-cap trade. These are the giants that give funds like State Street Energy Select ETF, Vanguard Energy ETF (VDE), and iShares US Energy ETF (IYE) their foundation. For investors who want the broadest, most familiar version of the move, that is the starting point.
And for all the recent strength, energy still makes up a relatively small share of the S&P 500 (^GSPC) — roughly 4%, up from 3% at the end of 2024, and still nowhere close to the sector’s nearly 30% weight in 1980, when it was the biggest group in the index.
Read more: How oil price shocks ripple through your wallet, from gas to groceries
But broad energy is only one lane. Investors who want more torque to crude prices often look to upstream funds like the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production ETF (XOP). That bucket owns companies that operate closer to the drill bit, so the upside can be steeper when oil is running — and the swings can be rougher too.
Then there is oil services, the part of the market that sells the gear, labor, and expertise needed to produce energy. Funds like the VanEck Oil Services ETF (OIH) and Invesco Dynamic Oil & Gas Services ETF (PXJ) have nearly doubled since last spring’s lows, but both still sit far below their 2008 all-time highs. That makes them a higher-volatility catch-up trade, not a group already minting fresh records.
Read more: You can trade oil futures. What to know before you start.
Pipelines and midstream are different. ETFs like the Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP), Global X MLP & Energy Infrastructure ETF (MLPX), and Alerian Energy Infrastructure ETF (ENFR) are less about chasing the next crude spike and more about owning the toll roads of the energy system. That can make them a steadier way to play the theme — though they are not immune when crude prices crash.