US Stocks Rise After Venezuela Intervention as Energy Shares Jump
Stock futures climbed Monday morning despite the weekend's dramatic events in Venezuela. S&P 500 futures gained 0.3%
Quick overview
- Stock futures rose on Monday morning, with S&P 500 futures up 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures jumping 0.7%, despite geopolitical concerns from Venezuela.
- Energy stocks, particularly Chevron and Exxon Mobil, surged on expectations of benefiting from the rebuilding of Venezuela's oil infrastructure.
- Gold and Bitcoin rallied amid geopolitical uncertainty, with gold climbing over 2% and Bitcoin rising to over $92,000.
- Tech stocks received a boost from renewed AI optimism, with chip stocks like AMD and Micron rising more than 3% in premarket trading.
Stock futures climbed Monday morning despite the weekend’s dramatic events in Venezuela. S&P 500 futures gained 0.3%, Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 0.7%, and Dow futures traded roughly flat as markets opened the first full trading week of 2026.
The US military operation that led to Nicolas Maduro’s capture initially raised concerns about geopolitical fallout. Instead, traders focused on the potential upside. Energy stocks led gains on bets that American oil companies would benefit from rebuilding Venezuela’s deteriorated infrastructure.
Chevron surged 7% in premarket trading, with analysts calling it the biggest beneficiary given its existing Venezuelan presence. Exxon Mobil rose 4.2%. Halliburton popped 9%. Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves at 303 billion barrels, roughly a fifth of global supply.
Trump said Saturday the US would “run” Venezuela temporarily while recruiting major American oil firms to invest billions fixing the country’s broken infrastructure. He told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that companies would “spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure.”
Oil prices showed little reaction despite the intervention. WTI crude futures traded choppy, last up 0.1% at $57.36 per barrel. Markets seemed to accept that Venezuela’s production won’t change dramatically in the near term regardless of who runs the government.
Analysts at 22V Research threw cold water on expectations of a quick oil boom. They noted Venezuela’s official statistics show production down 71% from its 1998 peak, with sustainable capacity around 1 million barrels daily. That’s roughly where output sits now.
“Given this highly uncertain political outlook inside Venezuela, it strains credibility to assume that U.S. oil companies would now commit significant private resources inside Venezuela to increase local oil production,” the firm wrote.
Gold and Bitcoin both rallied on the geopolitical uncertainty. Spot gold jumped over 2% to climb above $4,430 per ounce. Silver spiked 4%. Bitcoin rose from around $91,000 to over $92,000, gaining roughly 1%.
Tech stocks got a separate boost from renewed AI optimism. Chip stocks like AMD and Micron rose more than 3% in premarket. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s upcoming keynote at CES 2026 on Sunday also lifted sentiment for semiconductor names.
Palantir climbed over 3% before the bell. The defense software company benefited from its heavy involvement in the defense sector following news of the Venezuelan operation. Strategy stock rose 3% alongside Bitcoin’s gains.
Markets are coming off a mixed Friday session that saw the S&P 500 and Dow close higher while the Nasdaq ended slightly negative. This week brings key economic data, with Friday’s December jobs report taking center stage. Economists expect payroll growth of about 55,000 last month.
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