Wall Street’s Venezuela winners go beyond Big Oil : NPR

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) after the opening bell in New York on January 7, 2026. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit record highs on Monday and Tuesday, driven in part by some Venezuela-related stocks.

TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

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TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images/AFP

Wall Street traditionally hates “uncertainty.” But in the early days after the United States overthrew Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, American investors are ignoring geopolitical instability and focusing mainly on the positives.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit record highs Monday and Tuesday, driven in part by some Venezuela-related stocks. The S&P 500 also closed at a record high on Tuesday. At the same time, investors who hold Venezuelan bonds — including some large U.S. financial institutions — have also seen the value of these distressed assets rise.

“We’re in a different situation now,” says Eric Fine, who invests in bonds as an emerging markets portfolio manager at VanEck Funds and whose investment firm bought Venezuelan sovereign debt a few weeks ago.

American oil companies have been the immediate and stated beneficiaries of the country’s attack on Venezuela: President Trump said at a weekend press conference that American oil companies would now be able to invest in Venezuela, to “repair the badly damaged infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”

Since then, shares of major oil companies have fluctuated up and down. Shares of Chevron, the last major U.S. oil company left in Venezuela, soared on Monday before retreating on Tuesday. Other oil companies and oilfield service providers – including Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Halliburton – have followed the same trajectory.

Another potential Wall Street beneficiary: Elliott Investment Management, a hedge fund founded by billionaire and influential Republican donor Paul Singer. In November, a U.S. judge approved Elliott’s $6 billion bid to buy Citgo Petroleum, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company. Maduro’s government denounced and appealed the sale, which has not yet been approved by the US Treasury Department.

But the potential winners on Wall Street from the dramatic U.S. intervention in Venezuela go well beyond oil. Here are some other groups of US investors who benefit:

Venezuela’s long-suffering bondholders

For years, Venezuela’s debt seemed like a failed investment. In 2017, Venezuela failed to repay bonds issued by the government and its state-owned oil company, leaving foreign investors, including U.S. financial institutions, holding tens of billions of dollars in debt.

Now, many of these investors hope that the United States’ withdrawal of Maduro – and its intention to seize Venezuela’s oil – will boost the country’s economy and, ultimately, its ability to repay its creditors.

“There are much bigger gains in the bond market than investors were falling asleep to on Friday,” says VanEck’s Fine.

His fund manager has been buying Venezuelan government bonds “over the past few weeks,” betting that the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric toward Venezuela would eventually lead to some sort of action. Today, Fine hopes that the interim presidency of former Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez will eventually lead to elections and an “arguably more market-friendly” future Venezuelan government.

For a long time, “we really didn’t see much [that was] interesting in Venezuela. It is very indebted and there was no prospect of regime change,” says Fine.

But now, from a purely financial point of view, “I think it’s a great opportunity,” he adds.

American arms manufacturers are booming

The United States’ surprise capture of a foreign leader on its home soil has increased geopolitical instability, which can sometimes shake Wall Street. But this week, it benefited some stock investors, particularly among arms makers and other defense contractors.

Stocks of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, RTX Corp. and General Dynamics are all up this week, with the latter hitting a record high.

Precious metals soar

At the same time that stocks were hitting record highs, so were some of the precious metals that investors traditionally use as a hedge against uncertainty and risk. Gold prices rose at the start of the week, while silver prices hit a new record high.

So has the price of copper, which may no longer be needed for pennies but is in high demand for data centers, electric vehicles and a host of other manufacturing purposes.

Copper is also sometimes seen as a bellwether for the country’s transition to renewable energy – providing a greener contrast to Wall Street’s enthusiasm this week for Venezuelan oil.