OPENING CALL
Stock futures were stalling and oil prices dropped after Trump said Venezuela would give the U.S. up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned crude, a move expected to deepen global oversupply.
A record-setting global rally in stocks lost some momentum Wednesday as investors weighed up rising geopolitical tensions tied to the Venezuela crisis and posturing around Greenland .
Pepperstone said the lack of developments in Venezuela "should allow market participants to move past geopolitics as an issue in relatively short order, re-focusing on what remains a very strong fundamental bull case for risk assets."
Stocks to Watch
Applied Digital rose around 1% ahead of the open. It is due to post earnings late Wednesday, as are Constellation Brands and Jefferies.
Caterpillar Chief Executive Joel Creed is scheduled to speak at CES 2026 early Wednesday about the equipment manufacturer's high-tech transformation.
Chevron ticked higher premarket after the Financial Times reported Chevron and private-equity firm Quantum Capital were planning a bid to buy the international assets of Russia's Lukoil.
Newmont, Freeport-McMoRan, Antofagasta and other global mining stocks came under pressure as a rally in precious and industrial metals stalled.
Strategy climbed 5% premarket after index provider MSCI said it won't exclude crypto treasury companies from its indexes.
Watch For:
ADP National Employment Report for December; ISM Report on Business Services PMI for December; EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report; earnings from Cal-Maine Foods, Constellation Brands and Jefferies
Today's Top Headlines/Must Reads:
- Cloudy Outlook for Cyber Jobs as AI Fills Security Gaps
- U.S. Venture-Capital Fundraising Falls 35% as Firms Stay Private Longer
- China's Forex Reserves Rose in December as Yuan Debate Mounts
MARKET WRAPS
Forex:
The dollar traded flat ahead of U.S. jobs data that could provide clues on the timing of the Federal Reserve's next rate cut.
MUFG said the greenback was at risk of falling if the Supreme Court rules against the legality of Trump's use of emergency powers to impose sweeping tariffs in a potential decision Friday.
The euro remained steady against the dollar after data showed eurozone inflation eased in line with expectations in December.
Sterling fell . Monex Europe said the U.K, currency should be led by risk sentiment and the dollar's performance Wednesday as U.S. economic data are in focus.
Bonds:
Treasury yields traded lower , reversing the previous day's moves amid caution ahead of the labor market data.
The trend of Treasury yield-curve steepening is continuing. Amid concerns about the risks of stagflation, short-dated Treasury yields remained well anchored while long-dated Treasury yields edged higher, First Abu Dhabi Bank noted.
Goldman Sachs said the inflation outlook suggests that economic growth will be the dominant driver of government bond yields in 2026, reinforcing the hedging benefit of bonds .
Energy:
Crude futures fell following Trump's promise to extract oil from Venezuela.
"Oil prices extended their decline as the U.S. moved to tighten its grip on Venezuela's oil industry, adding to pressure from an already oversupplied global market," MUFG said.
Trump is set to meet American oil executives on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela's oil sector.
"While Venezuela now accounts for only about 1% of global supply, uncertainty over its exports has added to bearish sentiment ," MUFG added.
Metals:
Gold slipped as investors booked profits and turned their focus to key U.S. economic data due this week.
U.S. actions in Venezuela injected a new wave of volatility into global markets, boosting the appeal of safe-haven assets this week.
Sucden Financial said it expected prices to be increasingly sensitive to profit-taking and shifts in liquidity.
Silver futures were down, while platinum climbed.
HSBC raised its silver-price forecasts , citing prolonged tightness in the physical market, strong investor demand, and heightened geopolitical and economic-policy uncertainty.
Copper
Prices slipped but continued to hold above the $13,000-a-metric-ton mark amid concerns over tightening supply and tariff uncertainty .
"The specter of U.S. copper tariffs remains a factor in the market because, whether or not they are implemented, we believe the elevated inventory in the U.S. is unlikely to be re-exported anytime soon if at all," RBC Capital Markets said.
Iron
Iron ore gained in early Asian trading. Market fundamentals remained broadly neutral, with elevated supply and rigid demand largely offsetting each other, Nanhua Futures said.
TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES
Orsted to File Additional Legal Challenge to Trump's Offshore Wind Halt
Danish energy company Orsted said it plans to file another legal challenge against a Trump administration order to halt construction of a U.S. offshore wind project.
The renewables company said Wednesday that its Sunrise Wind Project off New York's coast faces substantial harm from last month's stop-work order and that it would initiate preliminary legal proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
How Google Got Its Groove Back and Edged Ahead of OpenAI
In the wee hours of an August morning, an artificial-intelligence project manager at Google loaded the newest creation from its DeepMind lab onto a platform that ranks AI models.
Google had fallen behind in the AI race, while its rival OpenAI had attracted hundreds of millions of users to its ChatGPT chatbot. Google researchers were hoping that a new feature-a lightning-fast image generator-would give the search titan an edge in a weak spot for ChatGPT.
Nvidia CEO Says Chinese Demand for Its AI Chips Is 'Quite High'
LAS VEGAS-Chinese demand for Nvidia's H200 advanced artificial-intelligence processors is "quite high," Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang said, a month after the Trump administration made the controversial decision to approve the chips' sale in China.
"We've fired up our supply chain, and H200s are flowing through the line, " Huang said Tuesday during a question-and-answer session at the Consumer Electronics Show here. "We're getting the last details of the licensing finished with the U.S. government."
xAI Raises $20 Billion in Series E Funding Round, Surpassing Initial Target
xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, completed a $20 billion Series E funding round, surpassing its $15 billion target.
The company behind the Grok large language model said Tuesday that investors in the funding round included Qatar Investment Authority, Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, MGX and Baron Capital Group, and Fidelity Management & Research Company.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Abel's Salary Set at $25 Million, Topping Buffett
Berkshire Hathaway's new Chief Executive Officer Greg Abel will be paid $25 million annually, a substantial increase from the pay of his predecessor Warren Buffett.
The company disclosed Abel's salary in a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Global Markets, U.S. Futures Nervy as Geopolitical Tensions Sour Sentiment
Growing geopolitical tensions led to mixed performance in global markets and U.S. futures. President Trump's promise to bring 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. brought oil prices-and energy stocks-down on oversupply fears, while a fresh war of words between China and Japan hit investor sentiment in Asia. Investors watch for jobs reports from the U.S., though Friday's nonfarm payroll print will provide a clearer clue on the timing of the Federal Reserve's next interest-rate cut.
-U.S. indexes were mixed premarket ahead of a busy day of jobs data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1% premarket after hitting a record high overnight, though futures for the S&P 500 dropped 0.1% premarket after reaching its own high. Momentum in technology stocks slipped across global markets, helping to drag the tech-heavy Nasdaq down 0.2% premarket.
Eurozone Inflation Falls to ECB Target
The annual rate of inflation in the eurozone fell to the European Central Bank's target in December, underpinning views that monetary policy will remain stable in the near future.
The European Union's statistics agency said Wednesday that consumer prices in the currency bloc were 2% higher than a year prior, slowing from a 2.1% increase in November, and in line with a consensus of economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
Supreme Court Sets Friday as an Opinion Day, Raising Prospects of a Tariff Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court set Friday as an opinion day, raising expectations that the court could rule on the case regarding global tariffs President Donald Trump imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The court doesn't signal which decision or decisions it will render on a particular date. Rulings are issued at 10 a.m. Eastern time on decision days.
The 'Growler' Signal-Jamming Jet That Helped Capture Nicolás Maduro
Among the more than 150 U.S. warplanes that swarmed over Venezuela this past weekend was the Growler, a jet that attacks signals, not people.
The Boeing EA-18G Growler is a specialist in electronic warfare, a once neglected part of combat that has enjoyed a renaissance following its mass use in the Ukraine war. The Growler, which is flown by a Navy squadron nicknamed the "Zappers" and other naval units, likely played a key role in Venezuela, where air defenses were quickly overwhelmed.
Russia Sends Submarine to Escort Tanker the U.S. Tried to Seize Off Venezuela
Russia has sent a submarine and other naval assets to escort an empty, rusting oil tanker that has become a new flashpoint in U.S.-Russia relations, according to a U.S. official.
(MORE TO FOLLOW) Dow Jones Newswires
01-07-26 0617ET
