S&P 500 ticks higher to another record, but rally this week loses some momentum

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average notched fresh all-time intraday records on Wednesday, building on their strong starts to 2026, though the rally has lost some steam.

The benchmark was last up 0.1%, while the 30-stock Dow fell 270 points, or 0.5%, after rising more than 150 points, or 0.3%, to a new high earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5%.

Shares of oil refiner Valero Energy was among the winners of the day, gaining 3% after sources told CNBC that oil sales from Venezuela will continue indefinitely and sanctions would be reduced.

In contrast, crude oil prices dropped on the heels of President Donald Trump saying that interim authorities in Venezuela will be turning over as much as 50 million barrels of oil to the U.S., spurring concerns over increasing oil supply.

“The lack of significant movement in the price of a barrel of crude oil, in our opinion, is a vote of confidence that we’re still far from being tight from a supply-demand standpoint,” said Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. “There’s significant risk of oversupply.”

While oil prices extended their losses from Tuesday, stocks climbed in the prior trading day as investors seemed to shrug off worries about the U.S. attack on Venezuela over the weekend.

“What’s happened in South America hasn’t changed the prospect for growth in the U.S. from an equity market standpoint,” Buchanan also said.

“I think there’s some complacency from appreciating the overall geopolitical risks that are growing, in our opinion, but we don’t feel like what’s happening in Venezuela has moved the needle in that regard up or down,” he continued. “We just feel like we’re still in a tinderbox.”

Wednesday’s session also saw bank stocks give back some of their strong gains for early 2026. JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo were key laggards, each falling more than 2%.