Stock market news for Jan. 7, 2026

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average pulled back from record levels on Wednesday as areas of the market that were hot to start the year lost steam.

The broad market index dropped 0.34% and closed at 6,920.93. The 30-stock Dow fell 466 points, or 0.94%, settling at 48,996.08. Both indexes rose to fresh all-time highs earlier in the session. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.16% and ended at 23,584.27.

Financials and energy — two of the sectors that started off 2026 strong — saw losses during the trading day, with both declining more than 1%. Bank stocks that ended the session lower included JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Meanwhile, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips were key laggards in the energy space.

Beyond the energy stragglers, 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 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.”

Trump contributed to the market’s losses on Wednesday. The president said that he “will not permit” defense companies to issue dividends or stock buybacks until firms address his complaints about the industry. Those comments sent defense stocks lower on the day.

Additionally, Trump said the U.S. is going to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, a move that weighed on private equity stocks, such as Blackstone and Apollo Global Management.

On the flip side, shares of oil refiners Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum were was among the winners of the day, gaining 3% and more than 1%, respectively, after sources told CNBC that oil sales from Venezuela will continue indefinitely and sanctions would be reduced.