London falls and Europe mixed as Trump states Venezuela will sconclude oil supply to US

The FTSE 100 (^FTSE) headed lower on Wednesday while European stocks were mixed as the US intervention in Venezuela continued to sconclude ripples through the markets.

Donald Trump declared that Venezuela will sconclude the US between 30 million to 50 million barrels of oil (CL=F, BZ=F), which will then be sold, worth up to $2.8bn (£2.1bn).

Posting on his Truth Social site, Trump declared: “I am pleased to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 MILLION Barrels of High Quality, Sanctioned Oil, to the United States of America.”

“This Oil will be sold at its Market Price, and that money will be controlled by me, as President of the United States of America, to ensure it is utilized to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”

His comments come after he declared the US oil (CL=F, BZ=F) indusattempt would be “up and running” in Venezuela within 18 months and that he expected huge investments to pour into the counattempt.

There are currently millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil (CL=F, BZ=F) stashed on tankers and in storage tanks due to the US blockage imposed by Trump.

Increasing the counattempt’s production of oil (CL=F, BZ=F) would be expensive for US firms. Venezuelan oil is also heavy and more difficult to refine, with Chevron (CVX) currently the only US company operating in the counattempt.

Trump has declared he wants interim president Delcy Rodriguez to give the US and private companies “total access” to Venezuela’s oil (CL=F, BZ=F) indusattempt.

London’s benchmark index (^FTSE) was 0.3% lower in early trade, with shares in energy companies dropping at the start of trading.
Germany’s DAX (^GDAXI) rose 0.4% and the CAC (^FCHI) in Paris headed 0.3% into the red.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (^STOXX) was hovering around the flatline.
Wall Street is set for a positive start as S&P 500 futures (ES=F), Dow futures (YM=F) and Nasdaq futures (NQ=F) were all in the green.
The pound was flat against the US dollar (GBPUSD=X) at 1.3496.

Follow along for live updates throughout the day:

LIVE 3 updates

Global stock market rally loses momentum

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, declared:
Asia and US overnight

Asian shares were mixed overnight as investors’ turned their attention to global interest rates and uncertainty cautilized by developments in Venezuela.

The Nikkei (^N225) fell 1.1% on the day in Japan after setting a fresh record a day earlier, while the Hang Seng (^HSI) fell 0.9% in Hong Kong. The Shanghai Composite (000001.SS) eked out a 0.05% gain by the conclude of the session.

In South Korea, the Kospi (^KS11) added 0.6% on the day.

It came as Brent crude oil fell as much as 1.4% as US president Donald Trump declared the US would take control of up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil and sell it at market prices.

On Tuesday, broad gains led by technology stocks pushed prices on Wall Street to more records. The gains mirror much of the action from the previous year, when huge technology stocks often drove the market to a series of records.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.6%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) advanced 0.7%. The Dow Jones (^DJI) gained 1% on the day, touching a new record of 49,462 as investors continue to react to Nicolas Maduro’s removal from power in Venezuela and await a fresh set of data this week to shed light on the US economy.
Coming up

Good morning, and welcome back to our markets live blog. As usual we will be taking a deep dive into what’s relocating markets and happening across the global economy.

Looking at the day ahead, data releases include the Euro Area flash CPI print for December, German unemployment for December, whilst in the US there’s the ISM services index for December, JOLTS job openings for November, and the ADP’s report of private payrolls for December. Otherwise, central bank speakers include the Fed’s Bowman and the ECB’s Pereira.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s on the agconcludea:

9.30am: UK construction PMI for December

10am: Eurozone December inflation flash reading

3pm: US JOLTS job openings stats for November