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Good morning.
US forces just removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a weekend raid. The operation, called "Absolute Resolve," potentially unlocks 300+ billion barrels of oil for trade. We’re tracking 11 stocks positioned to profit from the shift.
In today’s news:
11 stocks to watch as the US moves into Venezuela's oil sector
Chip stocks rally 4% to start 2026, CES keynotes this week
Top hedge funds ranked by 2025 returns (half underperformed the S&P)
Why 2025's best index funds could be terrible in 2026
Plenty more chaos (and opportunities) unpacked below.
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📰 Market Headlines
Markets kicked off 2026 with a cautious finish on Friday.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.19%, the Dow advanced 0.66%, and the Nasdaq slipped 0.03% on the first trading day of 2026.
Stock futures held steady Sunday night after US forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise military operation over the weekend.
Elite US troops removed President Nicolás Maduro from Venezuela over the weekend in "Operation Absolute Resolve." The move potentially frees up 300 billion barrels of oil for trade, roughly equal to Saudi Arabia's total proven reserves.
President Trump has stated that the US will “run” Venezuela until the country can execute a “judicious transition,” according to MSN.
AltIndex shows that sentiment around Nike (NKE) has risen after Maduro was photographed in custody wearing a Nike Tech sweatsuit.
The finance world hasn't stopped talking about Venezuelan oil since the operation. The US may be positioning itself into a "guardianship" relationship with the country, which would give American companies access to one of the world's largest petroleum reserves.
The White House is pressing US oil companies to invest in Venezuela's damaged oil infrastructure if they want to recover debts from expropriations two decades ago.
The play: Invest billions to rebuild capacity → recover historical losses → profit from long-term production. High risk, high reward.
Chip stocks rallied to start the year, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumping 4% Friday, outpacing broader markets as investors rotated back into semiconductors after a late-December selloff. NVIDIA rose 1.2%, Intel surged 6.7%, and AMD climbed 4.3%. Attention turns to CES in Las Vegas this week, where Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang speaks Monday, and AMD CEO Lisa Su delivers a keynote later in the week.
The top 10 highest-performing index funds of 2025 might be bad plays for 2026, according to Jeff Ptak (managing director for Morningstar Research Services). He explains how one index fund delivered 796% returns and explains why leveraged funds are great (and terrible) in this article.
Here’s how the top hedge funds performed in 2025. For context, the S&P 500 returned about 16% last year, so any hedge fund that returned below that amount would’ve been better off buying an index fund (and that’s about half of the funds in this image).
Samsung plans to double the number of mobile devices powered by Google's Gemini AI to 800 million units this year, giving the search giant a major edge in the AI race. The Samsung co-CEO confirmed the expansion as global competition in artificial intelligence heats up.
Orsted filed a legal challenge against the Trump administration's suspension of its $5 billion Revolution Wind project, located 15 miles off the Rhode Island coast. The Danish renewables giant is seeking a court injunction after the government halted the offshore wind farm on national security grounds, marking the latest blow to wind developers under President Trump.
😱 Fear & Greed Index
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🤖 AI/Future/Tech News
Crunchbase tallied more than $100 billion poured into mega AI rounds last year, with several startups clearing the $2 billion mark as OpenAI led with a historic $40 billion SoftBank‑anchored deal.
xAI’s Grok triggered international backlash after users flooded X with sexualized edits; regulators in France and Malaysia opened probes into the deepfake surge tied to the bot’s new instant image-editing feature.
🪙 Crypto
Japan’s finance minister is backing crypto exchanges as a gateway for digital assets like Bitcoin (Cointelegraph).
SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw, the agency’s most consistent crypto skeptic, officially departed the commission.
🚨 Trending on Reddit
❓Market Trivia Corner
Which sector performed the best in the past year? (It's not tech!)
🎤️ What you said last time
🧠 The Missing (Market) Links
For Chick-fil-A’s 80th anniversary, the company is launching its largest marketing campaign ever.
The first-ever GLP-1 pill has launched in the US (from Novo Nordisk).
Watch this 1-hour masterclass on business that Warren Buffett put on (totally free).
Coca‑Cola said it will eliminate roughly 75 corporate roles in Atlanta.
A new JAMA Surgery study estimated self‑driving adoption could eliminate more than 1 million road injuries by 2035.
Minimum‑wage hikes across 19 states delivered raises to 8.3 million workers, with Hawaii jumping $2 per hour.
📜 Quote of the Day
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Cheers,
Brandon & Blake of Invested Inc
Thumbnail image: Flickr, TEDizen
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