The US attack on Venezuela over the weekend has rippled across stocks, gold, and oil markets as investors try to price in what comes next.
The strike on Venezuela and the capture of President Nicolás Maduro have sparked a mix of risk-on and risk-off assets to grind higher to kick off the week. While geopolitical conflict was generally a negative for markets in 2025, the current situation between the US and Venezuela doesn’t seem to be escalating, analysts on JPMorgan’s market intelligence team wrote in a note on Monday.
US equities have generally sold off in past conflicts as geopolitical tensions escalated, only to jump as the conflict actually began, according to a Fundstrat analysis of other international events that rocked US markets in recent decades.
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“The old adage has long been to ‘sell the rumor, buy the invasion,'” Kent Fung, Fundstrat’s vice president of market intelligence, wrote in a client note.
Here are five charts that show the wide-reaching impact of the weekend raid:
US stocks
US equities rose as markets took in the news. All three benchmark indexes rose into the green, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping more than 500 points to a record high.
Here’s where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. opening bell on Wednesday:
“Traders have addressed the first full market week of 2026 with a spring in their collective step, despite, or because of, the Trump administration’s daring/foolhardy ‘kidnapping’ of Venezuela’s President Maduro and his wife,” David Morrison, a senior market analyst at Trade Nation, wrote in a note on Monday, adding that stocks had been showing “marked weakness” during the holidays.
Energy stocks
US energy stocks also got a boost, leading the overall market higher.
Chevron, the US oil major with operations in Venezuela, was seen as one of the most prominent winners from this weekend’s events. The stock was up as much as 7%.
ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil, to which Venezuela owes billions due to the nationalization of assets, also saw large gains, as did large oil services firms.
Still, some commentators cautioned that the move higher among big energy companies might be premature, with a lot of uncertainty lingering around the ultimate outcome of the raid and the timeline for rebuilding Venezuela’s oil industry.
“The surge in the oil major stocks is understandable but likely overdone,” David Rosenberg, a top economist and the founder of Rosenberg Research, wrote in a note on Monday. “The overall macro and market implications from what happened over the weekend are likely to be small and short-lived,” he later added.
Gold
Gold futures surged 2% on Monday, with the metal trading around $4,422 an ounce. Bullion remains close to all-time highs after a blistering rally in 2025.
Silver, which also rallied aggressively last year, was up more than 7% on Monday.
The move higher in precious metals appears to be triggered by the Trump administration’s “unexpected defenestration of Venezuela’s President and his wife,” Morrison added.
“But it’s fair to say that many traders were just waiting for an excuse to buy back in at cheaper prices following the post-Christmas slump which saw both gold and silver crater off their all-time highs,” he wrote.
Oil prices
Oil prices inched higher following the attack.
Brent crude, the international benchmark, ticked up 0.6% to trade around $60 a barrel early Monday after falling as much as 1.2%. West Texas Intermediate crude also rose 0.7% to trade around $57 a barrel after falling more than 1% earlier in the morning.
Oil prices fell 20% in 2025 thanks to an ongoing imbalance of supply and demand in the market. Those pressures have come into particular focus as US production has remained robust and demand in China has dwindled.
“This muted reaction suggested that traders were looking beyond immediate geopolitical developments and focusing instead on the outlook for future production, sanctions and investment flows,” Trade Nation’s Morrison said of the overall moves on Monday. “While Venezuela holds the world’s largest proven oil reserves, current output remains significantly below historical levels.”
Bitcoin
Bitcoin, which has been gaining ground after tumbling into a bear market in late 2025, continued to climb higher to start the week. The world’s largest cryptocurrency rose 1% early Monday.
The price of bitcoin whipsawed last year, climbing to fresh records on optimism over the crypto-friendly Trump administration, but falling more than 30% from its peak as sentiment in the crypto market soured in the final months of the year. The token finished 2025 down 6%.
“Even crypto is catching a bid,” Paul Hickey, the co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, said of the move following the US’s attack on Venezuela on Saturday. “If you’re a bull, it’s nice to see a positive reaction to the weekend news on the first real full trading day of the year, but we’ll be watching to see if the gains can be held through the trading session, which is a job the market has had a tougher time of doing in recent weeks.”