Jan 5 (Reuters) – Wall Street climbed on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hitting an all-time high thanks to surging financial shares, while energy firms jumped after a U.S. military strike that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Investors bet Washington’s move against Venezuela’s leadership would allow U.S. firms access to the world’s largest oil reserves. A U.S. embargo on Venezuelan oil remained in full effect, U.S. President Donald Trump said.

The S&P 500 energy index rose to its highest since March 2025 and was last up 2.5%, with heavyweights Exxon Mobil rising 2.4% and Chevron jumping 5.8%.

Weapon manufacturers also advanced after Washington’s military action. Lockheed Martin rose 2.8% and General Dynamics climbed 3.2%, while the S&P 500 aerospace and defense index rose 1.8% to a record high.

“Energy stocks are really benefiting from the expectation that President Trump is intending to send them in to do more investment in Venezuela and ultimately make more money for themselves,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Seattle.

“The lack of permanent boots on the ground, the fact that we’re not permanently engaged, means the broader equity markets are able to set aside what might have been fears of a prolonged engagement,” Haworth said.

Tesla climbed 4.2% after seven straight sessions of losses. Nvidia dipped 0.6%.

The S&P 500 was up 0.76% at 6,910.73 points.

The Nasdaq gained 0.76% to 23,411.49 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.64% at 49,174.91 points.

The S&P 500 financials index rose 2.7% as investors looked to upcoming quarterly reports. Analysts on average see S&P 500 financial companies growing their earnings 6.7% year-over-year in the December quarter.

Goldman Sachs rose 4.8% and JPMorgan Chase added 3.4%, with both banks hitting record highs.

“The mood has been favoring financial stocks in recent days and as people look beyond tech, this is a sector many are choosing to look toward,” said Steve Sosnick, chief market analyst at Interactive Brokers.

Wall Street’s main indexes posted double-digit gains in 2025 for the third consecutive year, a run last seen in 2021.

Data showed U.S. manufacturing contracted more than expected in December, extending a 10-month slump.

The spotlight will now be on the monthly nonfarm payrolls on Friday, which could influence the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy in 2026.

Markets are pricing in about 60 basis points of interest rate easing this year, according to LSEG.

Cryptocurrency-linked shares advanced as bitcoin hit a more than three-week high.

Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, climbed 4.6%, while Coinbase gained 8.6%. Goldman Sachs upgraded Coinbase to “buy” from “neutral.”

Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 2.4-to-one ratio.

The S&P 500 posted 58 new highs and 10 new lows; the Nasdaq recorded 103 new highs and 45 new lows.

(Reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru, and by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and David Gregorio)

Over a dozen sanctioned oil tankers left port over the weekend in what appears to be an attempt to evade the U.S. blockade around Venezuela following the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, according to multiple reports.

At least 16 tankers disguised or hid their locations after leaving Venezuelan ports in the wake of U.S. forces capturing Maduro, The New York Times reported. Four of the fleeing tankers appeared to leave Venezuela on Saturday, shortly after Maduro was detained by U.S. forces, and traveled north of Margarita Island, according to Reuters, which cited satellite images used by TankerTrackers.com.

Some of the tankers have used a tactic called “spoofing,” which means they use fake ship names and misrepresent their positions. Reuters reported that most of the supertankers that left port typically transport crude oil to China.

Four tankers that left port on Saturday were not authorized to do so, according to internal communications from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, PDVSA, according to the Times. Reuters, however, cited a source with knowledge of the paperwork who said that Venezuelan authorities cleared at least four tankers to leave the country and hide their whereabouts.

A U.S. official did not confirm or deny reports of sanctioned oil tankers attempting to evade the blockade, telling The Daily Wire that the blockade remains in effect and is “focusing on sanctioned shadow vessels transporting sanctioned PDVSA oil.”

Twelve other sanctioned oil tankers that fled in recent days have yet to be spotted. The departures could challenge President Donald Trump’s massive blockade of sanctioned oil tankers, which went into effect on December 16.

Following the capture of Maduro on Saturday, Trump said that the blockade would remain in full force. Secretary of State Marco Rubio added on Sunday that the “quarantine” on Venezuelan oil would “remain in place.”

“That means their economy will not be able to move forward until the conditions that are in the national interest of the United States and the interests of the Venezuelan people are met. And that’s what we intend to do. So that leverage remains, that leverage is ongoing, and we expect that it’s going to lead to results here. We’re … hopeful that it does – positive results for the people of Venezuela, but ultimately, most importantly, for us in the national interest of the United States,” Rubio said.

The United States seized one sanctioned oil tanker used by Venezuela in December, and U.S. forces boarded another tanker around 10 days later. The oil tanker seized by the United States on December 10 was involved “in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organizations,” according to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Trump said that the United States would keep the oil the tanker was transporting.

The U.S. blockade was part of a military buildup in the Caribbean that ultimately led to the capture of Maduro over the weekend. After Maduro was in U.S. custody, President Trump said that the United States would take control of Venezuela until a peaceful transition of power could take place.