The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average hit new all-time intraday highs on Wednesday, building on a strong start to 2026, even as growth lost momentum.
The broad market index last traded around the static line after rising 0.3% to a record high, while the Dow, which includes 30 stocks, fell 329 points, or 0.7%, after rising more than 150 points, or 0.3%, to hit a new high earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.4%.
Shares of oil refiners Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum were among the day’s gainers, gaining 3% and more than 1%, respectively, after sources told CNBC that oil sales from Venezuela would continue indefinitely and sanctions would be eased.
In contrast, crude oil prices fell after President Donald Trump said the interim government in Venezuela would hand over as much as 50 million barrels of oil to the US, fueling concerns about an increase in oil supply.
“The lack of significant changes in the price of a barrel of crude oil, in our view, is a vote of confidence that we are still far from constrained from a supply and demand perspective,” said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. “There is a significant risk of oversupply.”
While oil prices extended Tuesday’s losses, stocks rose the previous trading day as investors appeared to shrug off concerns over a US attack on Venezuela over the weekend, SEEbiz reports.
“What happened in South America did not change the outlook for growth in the US from a capital market perspective,” Buchanan said.
“I think there is some complacency in the appreciation of the overall geopolitical risks that are rising, in our view, but we don’t feel that what’s happening in Venezuela has moved the needle up or down in that regard,” he continued. “We just feel like we’re still in the cannula box.”
On Wednesday, bank stocks also gave back some of their strong gains from early 2026. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo were the key laggards, each down more than 2%.
