Stocks looked set to edge higher on Monday, while precious metals surged as investors piled into safe havens following the U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat. S&P 500 futures were up 0.2%, and contracts tied to the Nasdaq added 0.6%, putting the tech-heavy index on course to snap a five-day losing streak.
Gold futures rose 2.5% to $4,440 an ounce and silver futures jumped 6.5% to $75.60 an ounce following Saturday’s attack on Venezuela. Wall Street is worried that the raid could upend the long-standing global order and make it easier for China and Russia to justify sovereignty violations of their own.
Risk assets and safe havens rallying at the same time may seem like a paradox–but put the move higher for stocks down to a drop in oil prices, which could ease concerns about stubborn inflation.
The Brent international benchmark slid 0.4% to $60.52 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate U.S. prices were down 0.4% to $57.10 a barrel. Investors believe that Maduro’s ousting will mean Venezuela ends up producing more crude, which ought to offset any short-term supply disruption from the conflict.
“This morning there’s still a lot of uncertainty,” Deutsche Bank macro strategist Henry Allen said. “For markets, there’s a debate about the extent to which any short-term oil supply disruption from the upheaval will end up being outweighed by a longer-term supply boost from higher Venezuelan production.”
The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note slipped 2 basis points to 4.17% on Monday. The dollar climbed 0.3% against a weighted basket of its peers. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by total market capitalization, climbed 1.2% to $92,416 over the past 24 hours.