SHANGHAI: China stocks ended Tuesday at their highest levels in more than a decade, buoyed by non-ferrous metals and financials, as investor sentiment remained upbeat ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. Hong Kong shares also closed up.
China's blue-chip CSI300 Index and the Shanghai Composite Index closed 1.5% up each. Hong Kong benchmark Hang Seng was up 1.4%.
The Shanghai Composite Index touched its highest level since July 2015.
Non-ferrous metals and materials sectors led gains onshore and offshore, up 4.1% and 4.6% respectively, as copper prices hit a record high. Shares of Zijin Mining jumped 6.2%.
Insurance shares surged, with New China Life Insurance up 6.5% as the market expects better product sales in the New Year, while securities climbed more than 4%.
"Clients see limited downside risk in January, with capital returning to popular themes and a tactical upside window before the holiday lull," UBS analysts said in a note.
"The rebound in Chinese equities since December has boosted confidence, with many investors planning to stay active until the later-than-usual Spring Festival in 2026."
Shanghai Composite Index was up more than 6% since mid-December.
UBS is sticking with last year's top picks, remaining overweight on tech and internet stocks, expecting AI progress to continue driving growth. The bank also favours the solar supply chain as a way to benefit from the global expansion of energy storage and China's domestic "anti-involution" initiatives.
Tech majors traded in Hong Kong extended gains for a third consecutive session, up 1.5%, with Baidu shares hitting its highest level since August 2023. - Reuters
Sparc Fusion Reactor (Source: CFS)
At CES 2026, US-based power company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) announced the installation of the initial magnet for its Sparc fusion reactor. This magnet is the first of 18 planned units that will combine to contain and pressurize extreme temperature plasma. The plasma is generated by heating the hydrogen gas until its electrons break. During the process, its temperature rises to over 100 million degrees celsius, which is hotter than the centre of the sun. This makes it impossible to contain it physically. The 18 magnets will create a magnetic bottle to hold the plasma mid-air.
Bob Mumgaard, CEO of CFS said they are eyeing integration of the full magnetic array sometime this year, so they can activate the device in 2027. Their goal is to achieve a net energy gain, which is when the fusion process can generate more power than it consumes, paving the way for commercial fusion energy by 2030.
Mumgaard further said that CFS is working with Nvidia and Siemens to build a digital twin of the fusion reactor. Siemens will provide the design and manufacturing software, while Nvidia is providing its Omniverse virtual platform for the digital twin.
CFS has so far raised $3 billion from multiple investors including Nvidia and Google. It aims to generate power from its first commercial power plant, Arc, by 2030.
Sparc’s fusion reactor is part of a global push by big tech firms to switch to green sources of energy to meet the rapidly growing power demand of AI datacentres and to get their climate goals back on target. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the worldwide electricity consumption of datacenters will more than double by 2030, reaching 945 TWh, which is more than Japan’s total power consumption.
While Meta and Google have pledged to achieve net zero emissions across their value chain by 2030, Microsoft aims to be carbon negative by 2030 (removing more carbon than it emits) and Amazon has committed to reach net zero by 2040.
However, their self-imposed climate goals have gone off track due to the growing demand for compute power to support the generative AI boom. Meta’s carbon footprint has increased by 38% in 2024, according to Meta’s sustainability report. Similarly, Google’s carbon emissions have grown by 65% between 2019 and 2025, according to a 2025 report by Kairos Fellowship, a non-profit.
In her keynote at CES 2026, AMD CEO Lisa Su said around 5 billion people will be using AI by 2030 and to meet that demand AI companies will need 10 yottaflops of compute power. “A yottaflop is a one followed by 24 zeros. So, 10 yottaflop flops is 10,000 times more compute than we had in 2022,” said Su.
Source: International Energy Agency
How datacentres are reviving nuclear energy
Big tech firms are exploring multiple green energy sources to cut their dependence on fossil fuels. For instance, Meta is working to integrate more solar, wind, and geothermal sources to meet its datacentre energy needs. Nuclear energy is another energy source that is on top of their list.
Microsoft has partnered with Constellation Energy to restart a unit at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island plant, while Amazon has acquired a nuclear-powered data center from Talen Energy. Meta has signed a 20-year deal with Constellation Energy for 1,121 MW of emissions‑free nuclear energy from their Clinton Clean Energy Center plant. Google has also signed a deal to buy nuclear energy generated by multiple small modular reactors (SMRs). The reactors will be developed by Kairos Power, which aims to get the first of them up and running by 2030. Additional reactors will be deployed by 2035.
SMRs are smaller in size and have a modular design, which allows it to be constructed in less time and deployed in multiple locations.
The expansion of nuclear energy infrastructure has met with backlash across the world from local population and climate activists. Their concerns stem from the previous disasters at nuclear power plants in Chernobyl in 1986 and more recently at Fukushima in 2011.
According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2024, nuclear energy’s share of the total global energy production has declined from 17.5% in 1996 to 9.15% in 2023 due to high production costs and construction delays.
Experts warn that SMRs that Google and Amazon are trying to develop have been tested before in the US and Germany. Each of these small reactors have suffered failures and shutdowns on several occasions.
That said, CFS’ Sparc fusion reactor is a fusion-based device, while SMRs are fission based nuclear reactors. Most of the fusion-based reactors across the globe are still in experimental phase and are yet to become commercially viable. The risk of accidental exposure to radiation from fusion reactors is also significantly lower than fission reactors.
There are also talks about transforming decommissioned coal plants into nuclear power plants to accelerate deployment and cut construction costs by using the existing infrastructure. According to a US’ Department of Energy study, 36 US states have decommissioned coal sites for 128-174 GW of nuclear capacity plants, saving up to 35% on construction costs.
Image source: Getty Images
To some, BP‘s (LSE:BP) share price drop since the weekend might come as a shock. US military action in Venezuela — a key oil producing nation — should have powered the FTSE 100 oil stock higher, right?
The Brent crude benchmark is up 2.2% since markets opened Monday on fears of oil supply disruptions. Major US oil producers like Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil have printed even greater gains.
In contrast, BP shares have fallen 1.3% so far this trading week.
So what on earth’s going on with BP’s share price? And can investors expect it to break out of its current lull and soar in 2026?
Industry recovery?
US action to remove Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will have enormous economic and geopolitical consequences. One gigantic change is likely to be a complete overhaul of the South American country’s long-underperforming oil industry.
At the moment, though, the potential impact this will have on crude prices is hard to predict.
Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at Ebury, notes that “the country’s primary growth engine, its dominant oil industry, looks set to be overhauled under US oversight, and that should boost production in the coming years“.
He does add, though, that “a ‘quick restart’ in the oil sector is not on the cards… and any impact on global oil prices would likely be slow to be realised“.
So over the long term, it might become more difficult for companies like BP to generate healthy profits as supply levels rise.
Why are US stocks rising?
Why, then, have US oil stocks risen sharply while BP’s share price hasn’t? The UK company also has operations in Venezuela, after all.
It all comes down to President Donald Trump’s plans to make Stateside operators the heart of any Venezuelan oil industry recovery.
On Sunday he said that “we’re going to have our very large United States oil companies… go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country“.
Given Venezuela has the largest oil reserves anywhere in the world, the profits could be incredible even if global supply increases.
Are there other threats?
As I say, the outlook for BP is less encouraging if production from one of the world’s sleeping oil giants ramps up.
But it’s only one threat facing the FTSE 100 company, either now or over the long term. Its decision last year to refocus on fossil fuels could be more profitable today. And it’s certainly making good progress here — in December its seventh major new project for 2025 came online and ahead of schedule, too.
However, this strategic pivot also creates danger as the world transitions from oil and gas to nuclear power and renewables. Other dangers lurk for investors, too, from the company’s enormous debt levels, to the possibility of further boardroom volatility under new CEO Meg O’Neill.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/why-bp-share-price-slumped-153100146.html
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), a major importer of Russian crude for its Jamnagar refinery in the state of Gujarat, on Tuesday has denied a recent news report that three tankers filled with nearly 2.2 million barrels of Urals were en route to deliver their cargoes early this month.
“Reliance Industries’ Jamnagar refinery has not received any cargo of Russian oil at its refinery in the past three weeks and is not expecting any Russian crude deliveries in January,” the company, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, said in a statement posted on X.
“We are deeply pained that those claiming to be at the forefront of fair journalism chose to ignore the denial by RIL of buying any Russian oil to be delivered in January and published a wrong report tarnishing our image," it said, calling the news report “blatantly untrue”.
The statement also followed President Donald Trump’s remarks on Sunday that the US could raise even higher tariffs on India if New Delhi did not curb purchases of Russian oil.
https://www.bernama.com/en/region/news.php/world/news.php?id=2509501
President Trump predicted Monday that in less than 18 months American oil companies will have an increased presence — and could already be “up and running” — in Venezuela.
“I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News.
“A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us or through revenue,” the president added.
Shortly after the successful US military operation Saturday to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, Trump declared that Americans would have a presence in the South American country “as it pertains to oil.”
Trump said American companies would need to rebuild Venezuela’s crumbling infrastructure before tapping into the nation’s rich oil reserves.
Chevron is the only major US oil company currently operating in Venezuela.
ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil both left Venezuela nearly 20 years ago when Maduro’s socialist predecessor, Hugo Chávez, nationalized their assets.
“It’ll be a very substantial amount of money,” Trump said of the what oil companies will need to invest in Venezuela. “But they’ll do very well.”
“And the country will do well.”
The president argued that expanding drilling in Venezuela will “reduce oil prices.”
“Having a Venezuela that’s an oil producer is good for the United States because it keeps the price of oil down,” Trump said.
Trump administration officials did not give American oil companies a heads up prior to the military operation in Venezuela but had been “talking to the concept of, ‘what if we did it?'” according to the commander-in-chief.
“The oil companies were absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something,” Trump said. “But we didn’t tell them we were going to do it.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright is slated to meet with executives from Exxon and ConocoPhillips later this week to talk Venezuelan oil, according to Bloomberg News.
Wright has been tasked with leading the Trump administration efforts to rebuild Venezuela’s oil infrastructure, NBC News reported, citing a White House official.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani held talks with Joe Koch, vice president of U.S. energy major Chevron on expanding cooperation in the oil and energy sectors, including boosting production revenues and refining capacity.
The Prime Minister’s Media Office said in a statement on Sunday that the talks focused on ways to enhance the investment environment in the oil and gas sector and adapt contractual frameworks to align with Iraq’s development priorities in order to maximise oil production revenues and expand refining and processing capacity.
The statement said Al-Sudani directed the Ministry of Oil to continue discussions with Chevron to identify optimal investment opportunities and ensure the effective utilisation of Iraq’s oil resources.
In August 2025, Chevron had signed a preliminary agreement with the Ministry of Oil to develop a number of oil and gas projects, marking the company’s return after several years of absence. The agreement covered the Nassiriyah project, which comprises four oil exploration blocks in Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq, as well as the development of the Balad oil field in Salah al-Din province.
Recent Iraqi media reports have indicated Chevron has expressed interest in acquiring Russian firm Lukoil's majority stake in the West Qurna-2 oil field, one of Iraq’s largest producing fields.
(Writing by Majda Muhsen; Editing by Anoop Menon)
(anoop.menon@lseg.com)
Shares of some Canadian oil majors fell about 7% following removal of Venezuela's president.
Kyle Bakx · CBC News
North American oil prices climbed by more than one per cent on Monday following the upheaval in Venezuela over the weekend, while stock prices of some large Canadian oil and gas companies tumbled in early trading.
A barrel of West Texas Intermediate, the North American benchmark, ended the day trading 1.7 per cent higher, up about $1 to just over $58 US.
Prices remain relatively cheap and are about $15 lower than compared to one year ago.
Meanwhile, several Canadian oil and gas companies took a hit to their stock price. The Toronto Stock Exchange's energy index was down about 4.5 per cent by midday Monday, before recovering slightly to end the day down about 3.5 per cent.
Shares of the largest oil and gas companies in the country were lower in early trading, including Suncor Energy at about four per cent, while Cenovus Energy and Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. dropped about seven per cent, before recovering some of the losses later in the day.
Venezuela produces a heavy crude, which is similar to the type of oil that is mostly produced in Western Canada.
“Everybody is worried about how Venezuela will be able to increase its oil and natural gas production, because they have significant amounts of oil reserves, especially similar to what Canada has,” said Barry Schwartz, chief investment officer at Baskin Wealth Management.
Many Venezuelans in Canada celebrated the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, but excitement was tempered by uncertainty and concern over what U.S. President Donald Trump could do next.
Though stocks of Canadian energy companies are down, Schwartz said it’s likely an overreaction, noting it will likely take years to rebuild Venezuela’s energy sector infrastructure before production could noticeably increase.
“It's oil that has to be transported and refined. It's expensive stuff to get out of the ground. But you can see the longevity of those reserves and the value of them,” he said.
The weekend removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is impacting oil markets, because the country has some of the largest oil reserves around the world.
Once a major producer, Venezuela only pumped about 900,000 barrels per day out of the ground last year, following many years of declining investment because of sanctions and failed government policies.
At its peak, Venezuela produced 3.7 million barrels per day in 1970.
Overall, the Toronto Stock Exchange and North American markets all rose in value Monday.
Nicolas Maduro on board the USS Iwo Jima / Donald Trump TruthSocial account
The global tanker market is grappling with fresh uncertainty after the arrest of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in a dramatic US military operation over the weekend, an event that has effectively frozen the country’s oil exports and reinforced Washington’s hardline approach to maritime enforcement.
Speaking after the operation, US president Donald Trump said the United States intended to take charge of Venezuela “for the time being”, with a particular focus on reviving the country’s oil industry, while stressing that the embargo on Venezuelan crude remains fully in force. Trump claimed major US oil companies would eventually invest billions of dollars to rehabilitate Venezuela’s degraded infrastructure, but made clear that sanctions relief was not imminent.
That message was reinforced by US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who described the current policy as an “oil quarantine” rather than a pathway to immediate normalisation. “We continue with that quarantine, and we expect to see that there will be changes, not just in the way the oil industry is run for the benefit of the people, but also so that they stop the drug trafficking,” Rubio said. He added that the blockade of tanker traffic amounted to “a tremendous amount of leverage that will continue to be in place until we see changes that not just further the national interest of the United States, which is number one, but also that lead to a better future for the people of Venezuela”.
For shipping, the impact has been swift and severe. Venezuela’s crude exports, already constrained by sanctions and enforcement actions, appear to be effectively paralysed. Reuters reported that port authorities have not received departure clearance requests from tankers that had completed loading, while ship-tracking data shows vessels either stationary at berth or departing Venezuelan ports empty.
Even tankers linked to Chevron, which had been operating under a specific US licence, have stopped moving. TankerTrackers.com reported that there was not a single tanker loading at Jose, Venezuela’s largest crude terminal, underscoring the scale of the shutdown.
The tanker blockade has compounded operational stress at state oil company PDVSA. With storage tanks and floating storage reaching saturation, PDVSA has begun cutting output. According to a Bloomberg report, the company was preparing to shut in around 15% of national production of roughly 1.1m barrels per day, slashing Orinoco Belt output by as much as 25%. Extra-heavy crude wells in the Orinoco and Junin regions are being idled first, with further reductions planned elsewhere.
Joint ventures have not been spared. PDVSA has asked Chevron-linked operations such as Petropiar and Petroboscan to reduce production, while Sinovensa, a joint venture with China’s CNPC, is preparing to shut down multiple production clusters. Volumes historically destined for China as part of debt repayment arrangements are now stranded, as Chinese-flagged tankers have stopped approaching Venezuelan ports.
On the water, the effects of heightened enforcement are increasingly visible. One VLCC, the Chinese-owned Thousand Sunny, which has carried Venezuelan oil to China for years, diverted away from Venezuela and is now heading towards Nigeria. A number of other tankers previously bound for Venezuelan ports are now stationary, according to brokers and tracking data, reflecting growing caution among owners and operators facing seizure and retroactive sanctions risk.
From a market perspective, analysts are divided on what this means for tanker rates. Scandinavian bank SEB cautioned that the immediate impact on the compliant tanker market is likely to be limited. “We believe the attack and capture of Venezuela’s president will have limited impact on the compliant tanker market in the near term, as the US embargo on Venezuelan crude remain in place,” the bank said today. SEB added that any meaningful upside for compliant tankers would require a clear easing or removal of embargo on Venezuelan oil, something Washington has explicitly ruled out for now.
Maritime analytics platform Kpler highlighted the scale of disruption. In an analysis following Maduro’s capture, Kpler said the event marked “a decisive turning point” for Venezuelan crude flows, not because of immediate sanctions relief, but because of intensified enforcement and legal uncertainty. “State-owned oil company PDVSA’s legal ability to contract, transfer title, or receive payment is now in doubt,” Kpler noted, adding that maritime enforcement has become “the leading export constraint”.
Kpler data shows roughly 1.32m cu m of oil currently carried on sanctioned vessels, with Venezuelan crude and blends accounting for nearly three-quarters of that volume. Surveillance near Venezuelan ports has intensified, ship-to-ship transfers in Caribbean zones are drying up, and self-sanctioning by traders, insurers and shipowners is accelerating.
While Kpler sees the possibility of a medium-term transition if a recognised successor authority emerges, it stressed that near-term flows remain frozen. “As in past precedents, leadership removal amid sanctions regimes does not trigger immediate relief but instead deepens enforcement, freezes assets, and paralyzes trade until legal continuity is re-established,” Kpler said.
https://splash247.com/tanker-trade-freezes-as-maduro-arrest-deepens-venezuela-oil-paralysis/
By Charles Kennedy - Jan 06, 2026, 11:15 PM CST
Ørsted’s U.S. offshore wind subsidiary Sunrise Wind LLC is taking legal action against the federal government after regulators ordered a suspension of its offshore wind lease late last year, escalating tensions between renewable developers and the current U.S. administration.
Sunrise Wind said it will file a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging a lease suspension order issued on December 22, 2025, by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The company also plans to seek a preliminary injunction to block the order while the case proceeds.
The developer argues that the suspension violates applicable law and places the Sunrise Wind project at risk of “substantial harm” if allowed to remain in force. While Sunrise Wind said it continues to seek a negotiated resolution with the administration, it described litigation as necessary to protect the project and its investments.
Sunrise Wind, a wholly owned subsidiary of Danish offshore wind major Ørsted, has already secured all required local, state, and federal permits after what it described as extensive multi-year environmental and regulatory reviews. As part of that process, the project underwent years of consultation with U.S. defense authorities to address potential national security and military aviation concerns.
Those discussions culminated in a formal mitigation agreement between Sunrise Wind, the Department of the Air Force, and defense authorities, clearing the project to proceed from construction through operations. Additional approvals were granted by agencies including the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and National Marine Fisheries Service.
Construction of the project is now well advanced. Sunrise Wind said the offshore wind farm is nearly 45% complete, with 44 of 84 monopile foundations already installed along with the offshore converter station. Onshore electrical infrastructure is largely finished, and near-shore export cables have been laid.
Before the lease suspension order was issued, Sunrise Wind expected the project to begin generating electricity as early as October 2026. Once fully operational in 2027, the wind farm is contracted to supply power to nearly 600,000 homes under a 25-year agreement with the State of New York.
The company warned that delaying or derailing the project could have broader implications for grid reliability at a time of rising electricity demand. Industry experts, Sunrise Wind said, have flagged increased risks to system reliability if projects like Sunrise Wind fail to come online as planned.
The legal challenge comes amid growing uncertainty for the U.S. offshore wind sector, which has faced cost inflation, supply chain disruptions, and increasing political scrutiny. While New York remains one of the most aggressive offshore wind markets in the country, federal policy signals have become less predictable, particularly around permitting and lease enforcement.
Sunrise Wind also emphasized the project’s economic footprint, noting that it has already supported thousands of U.S. jobs across construction, operations, shipbuilding, and manufacturing. More than 1,000 union workers have logged over one million union work hours on the project to date, according to the company. Ørsted’s broader U.S. investments span grid upgrades, port infrastructure, and a domestic supply chain reaching more than 40 states.
The Sunrise Wind lawsuit follows a similar move earlier this month by Revolution Wind LLC, a separate offshore wind developer jointly owned by Ørsted and Global Infrastructure Partners’ Skyborn Renewables. Revolution Wind filed its own challenge in the same federal court on January 1, 2026, signaling a coordinated legal pushback from offshore wind developers against recent federal actions.
NEW YORK, Jan 6, 2026, 09:51 EST
Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc (FCX) rose 3.3% to $56.23 by 9:50 a.m. EST on Tuesday, after touching $57.12, a new 52-week high. The stock has traded between $55.71 and $57.12 so far, while rival Southern Copper was up about 3%.
Copper’s latest surge has been the key driver. Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME), a global pricing venue for industrial metals, hit a peak of $13,387.50 a metric ton on Tuesday, Reuters reported, citing a Morgan Stanley note.
Supply shocks and policy noise have amplified the rally. U.S. copper import tariffs remain under review, and inventories in Comex warehouses — tied to the U.S. futures exchange — climbed to 453,450 metric tons as of Jan. 2, up about 400% since April, Reuters reported. “Copper prices need to rise further to persuade miners to generate significant new production,” SP Angel analyst John Meyer said, though Macquarie analyst Alice Fox argued that “the fundamentals of the market do not justify current prices.”
But copper has a history of sharp pullbacks, and miners can fall fast when the metal turns. Any cooling in demand, a surprise jump in supply, or a shift in U.S. trade policy could cap the rally.
Freeport gained 4.78% on Monday to close at $54.41 and logged its second straight daily rise. Trading volume hit 26.7 million shares, nearly double its 50-day average, and the stock notched a new 52-week high, MarketWatch reported.
Over 11 months, the industry's production indicators grew by 5.5% y/y
In November 2025, Austrian steel companies increased steel production by 7.6% compared to the same month in 2024, to 606 thousand tons. Compared to the previous month, the figure fell by 14%. Thus, the country ranks 20th in the WorldSteel global ranking of steel producers.
During January-November, steel production by Austrian steelmakers increased by 5.5% compared to the same period in 2024, reaching 6.93 million tons. The indicator began to grow, while January-August saw negative dynamics.
It should be noted that recently, the country’s main steel producer, Voestalpine AG, announced the possibility of reducing production capacity at two of its plants in the country: Voestalpine Tubulars in Kindberg and BÖHLER Bleche in Mürzzuschlag. The reason for the adjustments is pressure from US tariffs and insufficient demand for steel.
Earlier, the company highlighted problems with production costs and competitiveness. The manufacturer appealed to the authorities to renew the mechanism for compensating energy-intensive enterprises for the cost of electricity.
In general, EU steel companies reduced steel production by 3.5% y/y in November 2025 to 10.2 million tons, and by 3.3% y/y in January-November to 116.1 million tons.
As reported by GMK Center, Austria produced 7.1 million tons of steel in 2024, which is in line with the 2023 level. The country ranked 23rd in the global ranking of steel-producing countries, while in 2022 it ranked 22nd.
Austria is home to two Voestalpine steel plants, namely Voestalpine Stahl Linz with a capacity of 6 million tons of steel per year, and Voestalpine Stahl Donawitz with a capacity of 1.57 million tons per year.
https://gmk.center/en/news/austria-increased-steel-production-by-7-6-y-y-in-november/
