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The Dow Jones Industrial Average looked set to extend its record-breaking run on Wednesday, although other indexes were on pace to open in the red as investors weighed up rising geopolitical tensions tied to the Venezuela crisis and posturing around Greenland.
Futures tracking the Dow climbed 22 points, nearly trading flat. But S&P 500 futures were 0.1% lower, and contracts tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 slipped 0.3%.
Both the Dow and the S&P closed at all-time highs on Tuesday as the market rally broadened to lift sectors like materials, health care, industrials, and consumer discretionary. Wall Street remains unfazed by geopolitical tensions, particularly given that there weren’t any major developments linked to the U.S. military operation that ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday.
“There remain few signs of any escalation in tensions on that front for the time being,” said Michael Brown, strategist at the foreign-exchange brokerage Pepperstone. The lack of developments in Venezuela “should allow market participants to move past geopolitics as an issue in relatively short order, re-focusing on what remains a very strong fundamental bull case for risk assets.”
The Trump administration’s designs on Greenland may well upend the long-established global order, but they also haven’t rattled markets. Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed the threat of a military action and told lawmakers that the White House’s goal is to buy the island from Denmark, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.
The rally in precious metals ground to a halt on Wednesday, with gold futures slipping 0.3% to $4,481 an ounce and silver futures down 1.5% to $79.84 an ounce. The dollar was flat against a weighted basket of its peers.
Oil prices fell as traders carried on weighing up the fallout from the Venezuela raid. The Brent international benchmark slid 0.7% to $60.28 a barrel, and West Texas Intermediate U.S. crude dropped 1% to $56.54 a barrel.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 2 basis points lower, at 4.15%
