US futures trade for the new week has commenced with Globex now open.
- oil futures have dropped around 1%
- gold and silver up a touch
- emini spx and Nasdaq futures are up also
The big news from the weekend was of course from Venezuela:
- US attacks Venezuela, captures President Maduro
- Happy New Year, especially to Venezuelans! Monday early FX rates guide
- US forces captured Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro in a pre-dawn operation involving airstrikes and helicopter raids in Caracas. Maduro was flown to a US aircraft carrier and later transferred to New York, marking a major escalation in US–Venezuela tensions.
- After months of escalating pressure on Caracas, US forces launched a highly coordinated operation that resulted in the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the early hours of Saturday morning. The operation, codenamed Absolute Resolve, followed a prolonged period of military build-up in the Caribbean and repeated warnings from Washington over Maduro’s alleged role in drug trafficking to the United States.
OPEC+ chimed in:
- OPEC+ holds output steady as geopolitical tensions rise
- By holding output steady, OPEC+ signals a preference for price stability over market share, limiting near-term downside risks for crude while leaving optionality open if demand or geopolitics shift.
For the central bank folks, we also had Fed remarks:
- Fed’s Paulson signals patience on rate cuts amid economic reassessment
- Philadelphia Fed President Anna Paulson said further US rate cuts may be delayed as officials assess inflation and labour-market trends, adding policy remains slightly restrictive and any modest easing would likely come later in the year if conditions evolve as expected.
- Speaking ahead of the 2026 Allied Social Science Associations Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Paulson said she expects inflation to continue moderating, the labour market to stabilise, and economic growth to run at roughly 2% this year. If those conditions materialise, she said, “some modest further adjustments to the funds rate would likely be appropriate later in the year,” suggesting that any additional easing remains conditional and data-dependent.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.