Futures on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are higher this morning, after the U.S. military captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife over the weekend. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures are inching above breakeven, with the energy and defense sectors enjoying gains. Investors are betting on U.S. companies benefitting from Maduro's capture, as well as potential changes to Venezuela’s oil infrastructure. Gold prices and Bitcoin (BTC) are on the rise as well.
- A quick recap of New Year's week on Wall Street.
- Back to the basics: stepping stones of options trading.
- Plus, cloud stock upgraded; Tesla's ongoing delivery woes; and Chevron stock surging premarket.
5 Things You Need to Know Today
- The Cboe Options Exchange saw over 2.3 million call contracts and more than 1.3 million put contracts exchanged on Friday. The single-session equity put/call ratio fell to 0.56, while the 21-day moving average remained at 0.58.
- CoreWeave Inc (NASDAQ:CRWV) stock up 3.9% premarket, after D.A. Davidson upgraded the stock to "neutral" from "underperform," with a price-target hike to $68 from $36. The cloud stock has added 65.9% in the past nine months, but has recently struggled with a ceiling at the $90 level.
- EV giant Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is up 1.3% before the bell, brushing off last week's news of a second-straight decline in annual deliveries. TSLA is currently in the middle of its worst losing streak since April 2024, after marking a seventh consecutive daily loss on Friday. Year over year, TSLA is up 15.5%.
- Shares of Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) are 6.1% higher in electronic trading, after President Donald Trump said U.S. oil companies will be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry going forward. Should gains hold, CVX could secure its fifth-straight win. In the last nine months, the stock added 8.8%.
- There will be plenty of economic data to kick off the new year this week.
European, Asian Stocks React to Maduro's Capture
Asian markets jumped across the board on Monday, as defense stocks soared following the U.S. capture of Venezuela’s Maduro. The South Korean Kospi surged 3.4% to a record close, boosted by Samsung’s 7.5% rise, after Reuters reported the company's co-CEO TM Roh’s plans to double the number of mobile devices with Google’s Gemini AI features. Japan’s Nikkei rose 3%, while China’s Shanghai Composite tacked on 1.4%. Hong Kong’s Hong Sang only rose marginally, as the region’s energy stocks lagged amid concerns over potential disruptions to China's oil imports.
European markets are tentatively higher, led by defense stocks. London’s FTSE 100 was last seen up 0.2%, while the German DAX is 0.6% higher, and the French CAC 40 rises 0.02%.
