Wall Street holds steady as oil prices rise

The majority of stocks across Wall Street rose, and some of the strongest gains came from oil companies after President Donald Trump ordered a blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into Venezuela. It’s Trump’s latest escalation in pressure on Venezuela, which may be sitting on more oil than any other country.

That sent the price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude higher by 1.6% to $56.02, just a day after it sank to its lowest level since 2021. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.5% to $59.78 per barrel.

That helped ConocoPhillips rise 2.6% and cut into its loss for the year so far, which came into the day at 8.5%. Devon Energy rallied 3.5%, and Halliburton added 1.6%. Oil prices had dropped through most of this year on expectations that companies are pumping more than enough crude to meet the world’s demand.

Also near the head of the market was Jabil, which jumped 5.9% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Mike Dastoor credited growth coming from accelerating demand related to cloud, data center infrastructure and other markets, while boosting Jabil's forecasts for revenue and other financial measures for its fiscal year.

Netflix climbed 2.7% after Warner Bros. Discovery’s board said it still recommends shareholders approve a buyout offer for its Warner Bros. business from the streaming giant, rather than a competing hostile bid from Paramount Skydance for the entire company.

Warner Bros. Discovery slipped 0.4%, while Paramount Skydance fell 4.7%.

The mostly calm movements for the U.S. stock market came even as several stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry continued to drop. Questions continue to dog them about a possible bubble and whether all the investment in AI will produce enough profit and productivity to make them worth it.

Oracle fell 4.5%, while CoreWeave sank 3.4%. Nvidia, the chip company that's become Wall Street's most influential stock because of its tremendous size, fell 2.1%.

Also on the losing end of Wall Street was Lennar, which sank 3.6% following a mixed profit report. The homebuilder delivered a weaker profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its revenue topped expectations.

Executive Chairman Stuart Miller also said that conditions remain challenging for the industry, with customers feeling less confident while looking for discounts and more affordable options. As a result, the company gave limited forecasts for its upcoming financial performance.

Progressive, meanwhile, sank 3.3% after the insurer based in Mayfield Village, Ohio, said that its net income for November fell 5% from its year-ago level.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady ahead of a report coming on Thursday that will show how bad inflation has been for U.S. consumers.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.15%, where it was late Tuesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe following a stronger finish in Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi leaped 1.4% for one of the world’s bigger gains and shaved its loss for the week so far down to 2.7%.

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.