Monday, January 5th, 2026
Market indexes ramped up today on what appears to be a new tailwind of “risk on” trading. The U.S. invasion of Venezuela, with President Trump’s stated purpose of controlling that country’s vast oil reserves, has emboldened investment in the oil & gas space. This comes as the narrative of an economic broadening out from the AI trade was just beginning to take hold.
All major indexes are off intra-day highs at the close, but the Dow nevertheless reached the bell at 48,977 — a record-high level. The blue-chip index gained +594 points on the day, +1.23%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 gained +43 points, +0.64%, and is within 1% of its all-time high close. The Nasdaq similarly grew +160 points, +0.69%, while the small-cap Russell 2000 led the way: +39 points, +1.58%.
Venezuela Has Oil Traders Licking Their Chops
We saw some of the best performers of today’s trading session in oil & gas — particularly in refiners such as
Valero VLO, up +9% today, and oilfield services giant
SLB SLB, formerly Schlumberger, which also rose +9%.
Phillips 66 PSX moved up +7% on the day, while the Dow’s trading leader was integrated oil & gas supermajor
Chevron CVX, +5.1% today. Venezuela reportedly has $17 trillion (with a “T”) in oil reserves.
Also, Latin American e-commerce giant
MercadoLibre MELI came in +8.8% higher today, largely on hopeful Venezuelan sentiment as well. As investors were on the lookout for places to make gains after rotating out of some of their AI-heavy gains in 2025, they clearly didn’t have to look farther than their daily news feed today.
Bank Stocks Higher on Promising Deregulatory 2026
Citigroup C shares were up another +3.9% today, adding to its strong +65% gains over the past year — and roughly one week from the company’s Q3 earnings report hitting the tape. Citi is far from the only bank with a strong outperformance: Goldman Sachs (GS) is +53% over the same one-year time period, followed by
Morgan Stanley MS at +41% and
JPMorgan JPM +34%. An easing of regulatory standards rolling out through this year promises that big Wall Street firms and smaller regional banks are destined to benefit from this economic climate.
Jensen Huang Addresses CES This Afternoon
The keynote address from
NVIDIA’s NVDA CEO Jensen Huang is going on right now at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). We are certain the discussion will continue to revolve around AI infrastructure development, with many analysts looking for the discussion to advance toward AI robotics and autonomous development. Another prediction we feel fairly secure about is that Huang will have a new leather jacket just for the occasion.
ISM Manufacturing Drops Off in December
Something of a lackluster report came out today from
ISM Manufacturing for December, with a headline of 47.9% coming in at the lowest level since October of last year, and below the 48.3% analysts had been looking for. Both production and inventories came down in the month, while both new orders and backlogs improved for December. Count this as “mixed,” ultimately, even though this is a manufacturing print that is going the opposite direction from the 50-level which represents growth.
Questions or comments about this article and/or author? Click here>>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM): Free Stock Analysis Report Morgan Stanley (MS): Free Stock Analysis Report Citigroup Inc. (C): Free Stock Analysis Report Chevron Corporation (CVX): Free Stock Analysis Report SLB Limited (SLB): Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA): Free Stock Analysis Report Valero Energy Corporation (VLO): Free Stock Analysis Report Phillips 66 (PSX): Free Stock Analysis Report MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
Zacks Investment Research
