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The law of supply and demand weighed on the energy sector, but all three main U.S. equity indexes opened in the green and held their gains throughout Tuesday’s trading session. Technology turned positive again, but materials and health care stocks led the way higher as the Dow Jones Industrial Average set another new all-time closing high and the S&P 500 notched its first fresh record of the new year.
Energy stocks were one of only two of the 11 S&P 500 sectors to post negative returns on Tuesday. “There seems to be significant doubt concerning the oil majors’ commitment to jumping into the Venezuela space to increase production,” says Mizuho Securities USA Director of Energy Futures Robert Yawger, who notes that West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has been trading below $60 per barrel since December 8.
“The International Energy Agency reported last month that supply will outpace demand by 3.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2026,” Yawger adds. “The market does not need new barrels right now, and the big oil majors may be hesitant to increase production.”
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The analyst explains “that Venezuelan Heavy Crude will also have to compete against 4.0 million bpd of similar grade Western Canadian Select (WCS) that has been coming into the U.S. for years on long-term contracts from a very politically stable country, Canada.”
As Yawger concludes, “Of course, a mini-Marshall Plan for Venezuela could sweeten the pot for the international oil producer, but that is yet to be seen.”
Breadth is expanding
The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) was down 2.7% on Tuesday after rising 2.7% on Monday. Refiners Valero (VLO, -1.2%) and Phillips 66 (PSX, -2.4%), as well as services outfit Halliburton (HAL, -3.5%), joined the supermajors and COP in the red.
Sherwin-Williams (SHW, +2.4%) led materials stocks, while UnitedHealth Group (UNH, +2.0%) paced health care stocks. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX, +3.3%) posted an impressive gain, but the trade early in 2026 appears to be about expanding breadth.
“The broad-based move is a good development,” Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates observes, “and the trend remains positive.” Indeed, industrials and financial stocks extended their respective week-opening rallies, while utility stocks got back in the green on Tuesday. Only communication services stocks joined energy in the red.
At Tuesday’s closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.0% at 49,462, a second straight new all-time closing high for the price-weighted index. The S&P 500 had added 0.6% to 6,944, reaching its first new all-time closing high so far in 2026 after doing it 38 times in 2025.
The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.7% to 23,547, posting a gain for a second straight session after a five-day losing streak. Notorious for its heavy tech exposure, the Nasdaq is edging toward its next new all-time high on strength in other sectors.
What’s the deal with SNDK?
According to Morningstar analyst William Kerwin, the leader of the AI revolution talked about a new memory storage platform for Nvidia’s Rubin chip during his CES keynote speech. Sandisk, which was spun off from Western Digital (WDC, +16.8%) in February, is a big player in the solid-state drive (SSD) storage market. It was also the hottest S&P 500 stock of 2025.
“Essentially this would add more SSD storage to AI infrastructure to improve model speed,” Kerwin told Barron’s. “More SSD demand for these systems would imply even tighter supply than we have right now, further boosting SNDK’s pricing.”
Kerwin is the only Wall Street analyst who rates SNDK anything other than Buy or Hold. In fact, his Underperform rating is equal to “Sell.” The analyst expects the company to lose its pricing power over the next three years, pulling growth and profits “back down to earth.”
