Economy

USA vs Venezuela Volatile oil market

Experts divided on oil – predicts “immediate” price increase 

The US attack on Venezuela was already priced in to some extent, but there is still some room for the event to shake up oil prices. Arctic Securities senior analyst Ole-Rikard Hammer tells Dagens Næringsliv.

– What the market will attach greater importance to is that Trump and the US show an increased willingness to actually act, not just use harsh rhetoric, he says.

According to Hammer, the attack marks a shift in sentiment from the so-called taco trade, that is, that “Trump always backs down”.

Hammer points out that Venezuela exports between 500,000 and 700,000 barrels of oil per day. Globally, this is relatively little but is pulling “at the margin towards higher prices”.

Sparebank 1 Markets oil analyst Teodor Sveen-Nilsen, on the other hand, believes that the attack “immediately” increases the risk premium when the market opens, reports E24.

– Such geopolitical events often lead to an immediate oil price increase of around five dollars, says Sveen-Nilsen.

At the same time, he emphasizes that this kind of rise is usually erased in the next two weeks.

MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic is on a similar track, reports Reuters. He believes that oil prices are likely to rise in the short term, but that the US attack could lead to lower oil prices in the medium term if a new Venezuelan government leads to the lifting of sanctions and foreign investment picks up again. 

Analysis: “Game changer” if the US enters Venezuela 

If the American operation is successful, it could be a “game changer” for the global oil market, says Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group, to CNN. Flynn believes that it could potentially be historic if American companies are allowed to rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry.

Many of the US refineries were built to handle Venezuelan crude oil and they are significantly more efficient if they can use Venezuelan oil instead of American, according to Flynn, who believes that greater access could be particularly beneficial for the US.

DI's Viktor Munkhammar writes in an analysis that the global oil price could fall in the long term, but believes that this is a "best guess" because it is very uncertain how a possible regime change will end and what it means for sanctions, for example.

The development of electric cars
Headwinds for electric cars - could be the worst year since 2020

Electric car sales are expected to have their worst year since the pandemic in 2026, reports the FT.

Sales are expected to increase by 13 percent, equivalent to 24 million vehicles, down from an estimated 22 percent in 2025, according to the analysis company Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Slowing demand in China, weaker growth in Europe and a shrinking market in the US are expected to act as a drag on sales, the newspaper writes. 

Last year
Billionaires sold shares worth 148 billion – Bezos at the top

Billionaires, CEOs and high-ranking executives on Wall Street sold shares worth 16 billion dollars, equivalent to 148 billion kronor, in 2025. This is reported by Bloomberg.

The news agency's list, which is based on data from the Washington Service, which tracks insider trading, is dominated by tech profiles in the wake of the stock market's AI-driven rally. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sold the most of all, as he began to reduce his holdings ahead of his high-profile wedding to Lauren Sanchez. In total, Bezos sold 25 million shares in a previously announced share program, which brought in 5.7 billion dollars.

Oracle's former CEO Safra Catz also sold shares worth over $2.5 billion, while Dell CEO Michael Dell and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sold shares worth $2.2 billion and just over $1 billion, respectively.