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Happy Monday. This is TheStreet’s Stock Market Today for Jan. 5, 2026, the second trading day of the year. You can follow the latest updates on the market here in our daily live blog.

Update: 10:00 a.m. ET

ISM Manufacturing Hits 14 Month Low

The ISM Manufacturing Index registered a 14-month low in the month of December, landing at 47.9, down from 48.2 in November. It was the index’s third consecutive month of decline and its lowest reading since Oct. 2024.

Production (down from 51.4 in November to 51 in December) and inventories (down from 48.9 to 45.2) were the leading problem in the decline. Meanwhile, the Employment Index (up from 44.0 in November to 44.9), New Orders (up from 47.4 to 47.7), and Prices (flat at 58.5) did a better job.

The reading means that manufacturing activity in the U.S. contracted faster in the month of December, stoked by the aforementioned factors. Any reading below 50 means contraction in the index, meaning that the sector has been contracting since its reading of 49 in Mar. 2025.

Update: 9:30 a.m. ET

Opening Bell

The opening bell tolls. Out of the gate, the Dow (+0.81%) and Russell 2000 (+0.68%) are leading U.S. stock benchmarks, separating themselves from the Nasdaq (+0.61%) and S&P 500(+0.56%), which have lagged the indexes to start the year.

Here’s the worst-off index, the S&P 500, at the market open this morning (15 minutes delayed.) Energy shown the brightest shade of green after America’s weekend intervention in Venezuela, sparing hopes that domestic oil & gas names might be able to benefit from the recent events. Chevron (+5.44%) and Exxon Mobil (+2.24%) jumped at the open.

However, energy wasn’t the singular source of green this morning. It could also be found in industrials and technology, among others. On the flip, healthcare, consumer defensive, real estate, and utilities are lagging this morning.

In total, over 60% of U.S. equities are in the green this morning. That said, here’s what else is trending this morning:

In Focus: Strategy’s Terrible Strategy?

Former Strategy CEO Michael Saylor once said that ‘nobody ever lost money buying Bitcoin.’ Well, Strategy did.

Weeks after selling shares to build up a cash reserve, analysts report that the firm is sitting on a $17.44 billion unrealized loss. That’s a pretty hefty hit, which will come through on the company’s Q4 results. In the meantime, the company continues to accumulate more of the world’s largest cryptocurrency,

That said, Bitcoin did hit a three-week high today, pushing up shares of crypto-related peers. At least some portion might have come from investors betting the U.S. could have seized Venezuela’s 600,000 bitcoin treasury. Strategy joined in the jump, up 5.1% around 10 a.m. ET.

Samsung Co-CEO Calls Memory Shortage “Unprecedented”

While most of America was asleep, Reuters published an article featuring commentary from Samsung Co-CEO TM Roh, who called the recent memory shortage “unprecedented” and “severe.” Roh teased “inevitable” higher prices for consumer technology, pushing up shares of semiconductor firms in Taiwan and South Korea; both Asian markets’ benchmarks hit new records. Here’s the story:

Update: 8:42 a.m. ET

A.M. Update

Good morning. 2026 is getting off to a red-hot start. This weekend, the Trump Administration carried out a military operation in Venezuela, capturing the company’s dictatorial leader, Nicolás Maduro. The administration has teased even more intervention, for which there is a long and storied history of American intervention — many of which didn’t end too well.

The motivation, of course, was oil. As a result, today’s big story revolves around how the current administrations new imperial ambitions might affect the price of the energy commodity. Trump had previously asked U.S. producers if they might return to the country after a years-long stint away from the heavily-sanctioned country, with its over 800,000 barrels per day (bpd) of heavy sour crude offering a new way to thumb the scales of global oil prices and accomplish a key goal of this administration — “drill baby, drill.”

Brent Crude oil continuous futures are reversing some of their weekend losses, which came as the U.S. carried out its operation. This morning, Brent is sitting at $61.42, up about 1.1%.

However, we still have yet to see how the recent intervention plays out, particularly since leadership close to the one-time dictator are still very much in power and have indicated opposition to complying with the U.S. after abducting Maduro.

And it might not be a singularly chaotic event. President Donald Trump has indicated that more action could be taken in Latin America, with Mexico and Colombia making the short-list at a press conference. Trump also doubled-down on his desire to acquire Greenland, stirring controversy in Europe.

Separate U.S. events, the first weekend of 2026 gave us plenty of other geopolitical developments as Yemeni separatists declared independence and Iran’s Islamic Republic descended into chaos due to protests, escalating worries that the country could be due for a shake-up.

While many of these events won’t be immediately important to the market, much less Americans, they’re worth watching. If 2026 is to be a year with geopolitical tumult, investors should do well to prepare for the unexpected.

Reining this back in, let’s touch on what’s up this morning:

Economic Data + Events

This week is going to be a busy one for economic data, starting with ISM Manufacturing PMI for December, which is coming today at 10:00 a.m. ET. It’s expected to be in the ballpark of where it was last month. Here is today’s modest slate:

Earnings Today

Once again, there are no large earnings today. Later this week, we’ll start to get a small trickle of earnings from the Q4 season, so keep your eyes peeled.

What’s Going On This Week?

This week will be a busy one, particularly on the economic data side. For an accounting of all the big events, we recommend glazing over our weekly markets digest, prepared by editor Charley Blaine: