PEAK ASSET: MORNING WRAP 6 January: ASX 200 futures are pointing up 30 points or 0.3 per cent to 8746 | Bitcoin tops $US94,000 | These ASX companies silver are making the most of the bull run |

Oil traders were bracing for chaos after the US moved on Venezuela’s leadership over the weekend, but the market did the opposite.

Brent actually slipped about 1.2% toward US$60 as traders started to price in the long-term possibility of Venezuelan barrels coming back online.

Output has collapsed from 3 million barrels a day in the mid-2000s to just 930,000 barrels today, and while a revival would take years, the shift in sentiment was enough to cool prices to start the week.

Market Highlights

ASX 200 futures are pointing up 30 points or 0.3 per cent to 8746.
All US prices near 3.15pm New York time.

• AUD +0.3% to US67.17¢
• Bitcoin +3.5% to $US94,379
• On Wall St: Dow +1.4% S&P +0.7% Nasdaq +0.7%
• VIX +0.46 to 14.97
• Gold +2.6% to $US4445.21 an ounce
• Brent oil +1.7% to $US61.77 a barrel
• Iron ore +0.4% to $US105.80 a tonne
• 10-year yield: US 4.16% Australia 4.79%

Across Markets…

US stocks were higher, pointing to a positive open for the ASX, in a broad rally paced by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, with Chevron surging more than 5 per cent. Bitcoin topped $US94,000.

Energy led eight of the 11 S&P 500 industry sectors higher as the index retook the 6900 point mark. The benchmark rose 16.4 per cent in 2025.

“Our most out of consensus call is that tech and communication services will continue to outperform as market leadership remains relatively narrow, bolstered by strong AI capital spending, scarce secular growth, and fund flows benefiting the largest companies,” Wolfe Research’s Chris Senyek said in a note.

This week provides an early check on AI and tech enthusiasm with the largest gathering of industry leaders at the annual CES trade show in Las Vegas. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang is set to speak later on Monday (Tuesday AEDT).

Shares in Nvidia were 0.9 per cent lower.

“We expect Jensen to outline the strategic vision for Nvidia’s AI strategy as now more enterprises from around the world start to recognise the volumes of use AI cases are increasing by the day across industries as the AI revolution hits its next stage of growth,” Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives said. “We expect Jensen to focus a lot of his keynote speech on data centres and physical AI and robotics front and centre.”

Source: AFR