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Oil sales from Venezuela to continue indefinitely, sanctions will be reduced, CNBC reports

Jan 7 (Reuters) – Oil sales from Venezuela to the United States will continue indefinitely and sanctions will be reduced, CNBC reported on Wednesday, citing sources close to the White House.

The U.S. will acquire more than 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela, CNBC said.

CNBC said the 50 million barrels were only the first tranche, with sales expected to continue indefinitely, and that on Venezuela would be rolled back as part of the deal.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. The White House and U.S. Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled a plan to refine and sell up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil that had been stuck in Venezuela under U.S. blockade, in a further sign that Washington is coordinating with the Venezuelan government since capturing President Nicolas Maduro in a raid last weekend.

(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina in BengaluruEditing by Tomasz Janowski)

 

Aktis Oncology secures Lilly as anchor investor for upsized US IPO

Jan 7 (Reuters) – Cancer drug developer said on Wednesday it was targeting a valuation of up to $945.4 million in its upsized initial public offering, signaling strong investor demand for 2026’s first U.S. listing.

The Boston, Massachusetts-based company has also drawn in to anchor the IPO, with the pharma giant indicating interest in buying about $100 million worth of Aktis shares.

is expecting biotech IPOs to rebound in 2026 after sweeping changes at the U.S. health regulator and funding cuts by the Trump administration hindered listings from the sector last year.

Lilly’s move builds on its partnership with Aktis, struck in 2024, to develop tumor-targeting . As part of that deal, Aktis had got a $60 million upfront cash payment along with an equity investment from Lilly.

“Eli Lilly’s commitment … shows that (Aktis’) cancer-targeting technology has passed the scrutiny of a major industry leader,” said IPOX research associate Lukas Muehlbauer.

“This backing is particularly significant because Big Pharma has been actively buying innovation in the sector,” Muehlbauer said, pointing to the acquisitions in 2023 of radiopharma startups RayzeBio and Point Biopharma shortly after their IPOs.

Aktis is developing treatments for a broad range of solid tumors.

Its lead candidate, AKY-1189, is in an early-stage study to treat certain solid tumors, including a form of advanced bladder cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. Preliminary data from the trial is expected in the first quarter of 2027.

The company is now aiming to raise up to $317.7 million by offering nearly 17.7 million shares priced between $16 and $18 apiece. It had initially planned on selling roughly 11.8 million shares.

J.P. Morgan, BofA Securities, Leerink Partners and TD Cowen are the underwriters. Aktis Oncology will list on the under the symbol “AKTS.”

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

 

US private payrolls miss expectations in December

WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) – U.S. rebounded less than expected in December, the ADP’s national employment report showed on Wednesday.

Private employment increased by 41,000 jobs last month after a revised decrease of 29,000 in November. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast private employment would rise by 47,000 jobs after a previously reported decline of 32,000 in November.

The services sector accounted for the rebound, adding 44,000 positions, though the professional and business services industry lost 29,000 jobs and employment in the information sector fell by 12,000. Payrolls in the goods-producing sector decreased by 3,000 jobs, with shedding 5,000 positions. Construction payrolls increased by 1,000 jobs.

“The visual signal from today’s headline is that jobs were gained in December, but at a relatively slow pace,” said Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics.

The ADP report is jointly developed with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. It was released ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ more comprehensive and closely watched employment report for December on Friday.

The monthly estimate has historically diverged from the government’s private payrolls count in the employment report, which some economists said limited its value as a gauge.

“ADP’s payroll estimate continues to attract more attention than warranted by its track record,” said Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics. “Its first estimate of private payrolls has been adrift from the first official estimate on average by 83,000 since its methodology was overhauled in August 2022.”

Though job growth has slowed significantly amid weak demand for labor, layoffs remain relatively low by historical standards. Economists say policy uncertainty mostly related to import tariffs has left businesses reluctant to increase their headcounts. Some employers also are integrating in certain roles, diminishing the need for labor.

A Reuters survey of economists forecast that the BLS report would show private payrolls increased by 64,000 in December after rising by 69,000 in November. With further government job losses anticipated, overall nonfarm payrolls were estimated to have increased 60,000 last month after advancing by 64,000 in November.

But attention is likely to be on the , which is projected to have eased to 4.5% after jumping to a more than four-year high of 4.6% in November. The November unemployment rate was partially distorted by the 43-day federal government shutdown, which also prevented the collection of household data for October.

The unemployment rate for October was not published for the first time since the government started tracking the series in 1948.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao and Andrea Ricci )

 

Alaska Airlines orders 110 Boeing planes for expansion plan

WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) – is ordering 110 new planes, the largest single order in the airline’s history, the carrier said Wednesday.

The deal comes two years almost to the day of the Jan. 5, 2024, midair blowout of a door plug involving a new Alaska 9 plane produced by -based Boeing.

Seeking to expand, the airline said it is ordering 105 737 MAX 10 planes and five new 787-10 jets and acquiring options for another 35 737 MAX 10 airplanes. The additional planes will help increase its fleet to more than 475 airplanes by 2030 and more than 550 aircraft by 2035, up from the current 413, the carrier added.

The five additional 787 Dreamliners will help the carrier expand its service to Europe and Asia.

“This fleet investment builds on the strong foundation Alaska has created to support steady, scalable and sustained growth, and is another building block in executing our Alaska Accelerate strategic plan,” said Alaska Air Group CEO and President Ben Minicucci.

“This is a historic airplane order underwritten by Alaska Airlines’ record of strong performance and strategic expansion. All of us at Boeing are proud of Alaska’s success and are honored they have placed their trust in our people and our 737 and 787 airplanes to help grow their airline,” Stephanie Pope, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said in a statement.

In 2024, Alaska, the fifth-largest domestic U.S. airline, acquired Hawaiian Airlines, the 10th largest carrier, in a $1.9 billion deal.

Alaska is exercising 52 existing options for MAX 10 airplanes and placing orders for 53 new planes.

Boeing, which currently offers the MAX 8 and MAX 9 for sale, has struggled for years to win approval for the new versions of the MAX – the shorter MAX 7 and longer 10. The planemaker has faced delays in the certification of those models due to an engine de-icing issue.

In October, the FAA gave Boeing approval to raise its 737 MAX production to 42 planes per month, ending a 38-plane cap in place since January 2024. The FAA imposed the unprecedented production cap shortly after a 2024 mid-air emergency involving a new Alaska 737 MAX 9 that was missing four key bolts in a door plug, causing a gaping hole to open in the fuselage at 16,000 feet. The incident revealed widespread production safety and quality lapses at Boeing.

(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington. Editing by David Goodman and Elaine Hardcastle)

Virginia Business Deputy Editor Kate Andrews contributed to this article.

 

Chip stocks jump on AI optimism; Dow ends at record high

Summary

  • Industrial Average closes at a record high
  • surge after CEO outlines new AI processors
  • Moderna jumps after Bank of America raises its price target
  • Investors await jobs data as earnings season approaches

Jan 6 (Reuters) – ended higher on Tuesday, as chip stocks surged on renewed AI optimism, Moderna rallied and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high.

Moderna jumped after BofA Global Research raised its price target on the drugmaker, helping lift the healthcare index.

Memory and storage technology stocks rallied after Nvidia CEO , speaking at the in Las Vegas, gave details about upcoming AI processors that include a new layer of storage technology.

SanDisk, Western Digital, Seagate Technology and Micron Technology all hit record highs.

The PHLX chip index also hit an all-time high, bringing its gain in the first three trading sessions of 2026 to about 8%.

“I think we’re going to have a very strong earnings season for Big Tech, and all those capex estimates that we hear about are going to be revised higher again,” said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital in St. Louis.

Investors are looking forward to reliable as the effects of a record 43-day federal government shutdown wear off, and upcoming releases include the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) on Wednesday and Friday’s jobs report for December. Weaker-than-expected employment data could strengthen the case for central bank interest rate cuts.

Heading into fourth-quarter earnings season in the next few weeks, valuations on Wall Street remain relatively pricey. The S&P 500 is trading at about 22 times expected earnings, down from 23 in November, but above the index’s five-year average of 19, according to LSEG data.

The Dow neared a historic 50,000 mark.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 42.92 points, or 0.61%, to end at 6,944.97 points, while the Composite gained 147.40 points, or 0.63%, to 23,543.22. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 489.12 points, or 1.00%, to 49,466.30.

Data on Tuesday showed S&P Global’s final composite PMI slipped to 52.7 in December from 53.0 in the prior month, while the services PMI eased to 52.5 from 52.9.

Markets also parsed comments from Richmond Federal Reserve President Tom Barkin, who reiterated the U.S. central bank’s careful take on further cuts, in contrast to Governor Stephen Miran’s call for aggressive cuts in a Fox Business interview.

Investors brushed aside fears of broader geopolitical fallout after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend, betting the move could pave the way for U.S. firms to gain access to Venezuela’s oil reserves.

Oil stocks dipped after robust gains in the prior session, with giants Exxon Mobil and losing ground.

Comments from Nvidia’s Huang about the efficiency of the company’s new chips raised concerns about demand for data center cooling systems. Shares of Johnson Controls and Trane Technologies dropped.

AIG shares tumbled after the insurance giant said CEO Peter Zaffino would step down.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Matthew Lewis)

 

Caracas, Washington in talks to export Venezuelan oil to US, sources say

HOUSTON/WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Government officials in Caracas and Washington are discussing exporting Venezuelan crude to refiners in the United States, five government, industry and shipping sources told Reuters on Tuesday, a deal that could divert supplies away from China while helping state company avoid deeper output cuts.

Venezuela has millions of barrels of oil loaded on tankers and in storage tanks that it has been unable to ship due to a blockade on exports imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump since mid-December.

The blockade was part of rising U.S. pressure on the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro that culminated in U.S. forces capturing him this weekend.

A potential deal to sell the trapped crude to the U.S. could initially require reallocating cargoes originally bound for China, two sources said. The Asian country has been Venezuela’s top buyer in the last decade and especially since the United States imposed sanctions on companies involved in oil trade with Venezuela in 2020.

The supply would increase the volume of Venezuelan oil exported to the U.S., a flow that is currently controlled entirely by , PDVSA’s main joint venture partner, under a U.S. authorization.

Chevron, which has been exporting between 100,000 and 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Venezuelan oil to the U.S., has emerged in recent weeks as the only company fluidly loading and shipping crude from the South American country amid the blockade.

PDVSA has already had to cut production due to the embargo, because it is running out of storage for the oil. If PDVSA does not find a way to export oil soon, it would have to cut production more, one of the sources said.

The White House, Venezuelan government officials and PDVSA did not immediately comment. Venezuela’s oil ministry has said the U.S. wants to steal the country’s oil reserves and denounced Maduro’s capture as a kidnapping.

U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast can process Venezuela’s heavy crude grades and were importing some 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) before Washington first imposed energy sanctions on Venezuela.

It was not immediately clear how sanctioned PDVSA would obtain proceeds from the oil sales.

The officials have been in talks this week about possible sale mechanisms, including auctions to allow interested U.S. buyers to participate in cargo offers, and the issuance of U.S. licenses to PDVSA’s business partners that could lead to supply contracts, two sources said.

The parties have also discussed if the Venezuelan crude can refill the U.S. in the future, one of the sources said.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga, Erin Branco, Jonathan Saul, Jarret Renshaw and Arathy Somasekhar; Editing by Simon Webb and Anna Driver)

 

Venezuela loads oil only for Chevron as PDVSA exports stall

Summary

  • Venezuela is loading crude exclusively for under a waiver
  • exports to China have been halted for a fifth straight day
  • U.S. has left storage tanks nearly full
  • PDVSA may deepen production cuts if exports do not resume

Jan 6 (Reuters) – Venezuela was loading crude only for U.S. major Chevron on Tuesday, while operations by state-run oil firm PDVSA to load cargoes for its main customers in China remained on hold for a fifth day, shipping data showed.

U.S. forces captured President Nicolas Maduro on Saturday and took him to New York to face drug charges. Interim President Delcy Rodriguez is now running the government, which the U.S. has said it will oversee.

The United States imposed a blockade on sanctioned oil tankers sailing into and out of Venezuelan waters last month, which halted most exports other than those destined for Chevron.

Chevron is the only U.S. oil major operating in the country under a U.S. license that exempts it from sanctions imposed by Washington on Venezuela’s oil industry to choke off revenue that financed Maduro’s government.

On Tuesday, several vessels chartered by Chevron were the only ones loading crude for export at Venezuela’s Jose and Bajo Grande ports, ship monitoring data showed.

Other ships were loading either to move oil between domestic ports or to store crude because onshore storage was almost completely full, according to PDVSA’s internal documents.

The last crude cargo that was loaded for an Asian customer at Jose finished loading on January 1, according to the data and documents. Without more exports, PDVSA could be forced to deepen production cuts it began in recent days because storage tanks are full.

FLOWING

Chevron on Monday resumed exports of Venezuelan oil to the U.S. after a four-day pause and called workers abroad back to its Venezuelan offices as flights to the country restarted. The U.S. firm has emerged in recent weeks as the only company fluidly exporting Venezuela’s crude.

At least a dozen vessels under sanctions that had loaded in December and had been stuck in Venezuela’s waters due to the embargo sailed in early January.

Those vessels were carrying around 12 million barrels of crude and fuel. It was unclear where the vessels were heading, although they were initially loaded for customers in China. The ships left in “dark mode,” which means that transponders that send out their location were switched off. The vessels appeared to break the U.S. tanker blockade.

The U.S. government has not commented on the vessels or whether it authorized the departures. PDVSA has not replied to a request for comment. Chevron said this week it continues to operate “in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations.”

Even after the dozen vessels sailed, many tankers were still anchored near Venezuela’s oil ports either waiting to load or already loaded and stuck in Venezuelan waters, according to ship data and witnesses.

(Reporting by Marianna Parraga and Reuters Staff; Editing by Julia Symmes-Cobb and Matthew Lewis)

 

Hyundai Motor Group plans to deploy humanoid robots at US factory from 2028

Summary

  • Hyundai plans to deploy at its Georgia plant starting in 2028
  • The Atlas robot was unveiled at CES and is developed by
  • Robots will initially handle parts sequencing before expanding to assembly tasks
  • Hyundai aims to produce up to 30,000 humanoid robots annually by 2028

LAS VEGAS, Jan 5 (Reuters) – plans to deploy humanoid robots at its U.S. manufacturing plant in Georgia starting in 2028, marking a step toward automating higher-risk and repetitive manufacturing tasks, the South Korean company said.

Hyundai unveiled the production version of the Atlas humanoid robot, developed by its unit Boston Dynamics, at the in Las Vegas on Monday, adding that it aims to build a factory capable of manufacturing 30,000 robot units annually by 2028.

The company did not disclose the cost of the robots, but said in a statement it aims to roll out adoption across all of its manufacturing sites as part of a push into “physical AI.”

The robots will initially carry out parts sequencing tasks from 2028, with applications expanding gradually as safety and quality benefits are validated, it said.

By 2030, Hyundai said Atlas robots were expected to move into component assembly with a longer-term plan to take on tasks involving heavy loads, repetitive motions and complex operations across production sites.

The robots are designed to reduce physical strain on workers by taking on higher-risk and repetitive tasks, laying the groundwork for broader commercial use in industrial settings, it added.

At Hyundai Motor’s affiliate Kia Corp, the labour union last year called to establish a body to address potential labour rights issues in preparation for the AI era, as workers raised concerns about expanding .

Hyundai Motor’s vice chair Jaehoon Chang said at CES that the company understands concerns about job losses, but people will be needed to maintain and train the robots, and additional personnel will be required.

The company expects humanoid robots to become the largest segment of the physical market, which refers to AI systems embedded in hardware that collect real-world data and make autonomous decisions, spanning areas such as , smart factories and autonomous driving.

Some automakers see an overlap between autonomous driving and robotics, because similar sensing, perception and decision-making technologies underpin both aspects of the emerging field of embodied AI.

Atlas features human-scale hands with tactile sensing and has the ability to lift up to 50 kilograms (110 pounds), according to Hyundai.

The robot can operate autonomously and is designed to function in industrial environments ranging from minus 20 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius.

Hyundai said it is accelerating development in this area through partnerships with global AI leaders, including a collaboration with and Google, aimed at improving safety, efficiency and real-world deployment.

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Harshita Mary Varghese in BengaluruEditing by Ed Davies and Alan Barona)

 

Acquisition of Elephant Insurance completed

Henrico County’s is now part of & Co., a New York private investment firm, after the vehicle insurer’s parent company completed the sale Dec. 31, 2025.

Announced Monday, terms of the deal announced in April 2025 were not disclosed. The U.K.-based sold Elephant Insurance Co. and to Flowers in “an undisclosed cash consideration,” Admiral said last year.

“We are excited to be entering this next chapter of growth and grateful to the support that Admiral has given us over the years,” Alberto Schiavon, CEO of Elephant Insurance, said in a news release Monday. “Having been a part of Admiral, we have a relentless focus on the customer, doing the right thing and a unique culture. We’re pleased [that] this partnership with J.C. Flowers will allow us to retain these important qualities whilst benefitting from their extensive expertise.”

Elephant has more than 400 employees, according to its website. A request for comment to J.C. Flowers was not immediately returned Tuesday.

In 2024, Elephant Insurance reported a profit of about £14 million, or $18.8 million, after reporting a loss of about £20 million, or $26.9 million, in 2023.

Admiral Group launched Elephant in 2009 to grow its overseas automobile insurance business. It initially traded only in Virginia. Elephant Insurance added Maryland, Illinois and Texas markets in 2013, followed by Indiana and Tennessee markets in 2016. Ohio was added in 2020 and Georgia the following year. More than 225,000 drivers and their vehicles are covered by Elephant Insurance, according to the website.

“Aided by J.C. Flowers’ deep understanding of the , we believe Elephant Insurance is well positioned to further expand in the U.S.” Eric Rahe, managing director and co-president of J.C. Flowers, said in a news release. “Consumers are looking for customization and coverage options, and with Elephant Insurance they have the ability to create auto coverage that best meets their personal situation.”

Founded in 1998, J.C. Flowers has invested more than $18 billion of capital, including co-investments, in 72 portfolio companies in 19 countries across sectors including insurance and specialty finance.

Nvidia says next-gen Rubin AI chips in full production

LAS VEGAS, Jan 5 (Reuters) – CEO said on Monday that the company’s next generation of chips is in “full production,” saying they can deliver five times the artificial-intelligence computing of the company’s previous chips when serving up chatbots and other AI apps.

In a speech at the in Las Vegas, the leader of the world’s most valuable company revealed new details about its chips, which will arrive later this year and which Nvidia executives told Reuters are already in the company’s labs being tested by AI firms, as Nvidia faces increasing competition from rivals as well as its own customers.

The Vera , made up of six separate Nvidia chips, is expected to debut later this year, with the flagship server containing 72 of the company’s graphics units and 36 of its new central processors. Huang showed how they can be strung together into “pods” with more than 1,000 Rubin chips and said they could improve the efficiency of generating what are known as “tokens” – the fundamental unit of AI systems – by 10 times.

To get the new performance results, however, Huang said the Rubin chips use a proprietary kind of data that the company hopes the wider industry will adopt.

“This is how we were able to deliver such a gigantic step up in performance, even though we only have 1.6 times the number of transistors,” Huang said.

While Nvidia still dominates the market for training AI models, it faces far more competition – from traditional rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices as well as customers like Alphabet’s Google – in delivering the fruits of those models to hundreds of millions of users of chatbots and other technologies.

Much of Huang’s speech focused on how well the new chips would work for that task, including adding a new layer of storage technology called “context memory storage” aimed at helping chatbots provide snappier responses to long questions and conversations.

Nvidia also touted a new generation of networking switches with a new kind of connection called co-packaged optics. The technology, which is key to linking together thousands of machines into one, competes with offerings from Broadcom and Cisco Systems.

Nvidia said that CoreWeave will be among the first to have the new Vera Rubin systems and that it expects Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon and Alphabet to adopt them as well.

In other announcements, Huang highlighted new software that can help self-driving cars make decisions about which path to take – and leave a paper trail for engineers to use afterward. Nvidia showed research about software, called Alpamayo, late last year, with Huang saying on Monday it would be released more widely, along with the data used to train it so that automakers can make evaluations.

“Not only do we open-source the models, we also open-source the data that we use to train those models, because only in that way can you truly trust how the models came to be,” Huang said from a stage in Las Vegas.

Last month, Nvidia scooped up talent and chip technology from startup Groq, including executives who were instrumental in helping Alphabet’s Google design its own . While Google is a major Nvidia customer, its own chips have emerged as one of Nvidia’s biggest threats as Google works closely with Meta Platforms and others to chip away at Nvidia’s AI stronghold.

During a question-and-answer session with financial analysts after his speech, Huang said the Groq deal “won’t affect our core business” but could result in new products that expand its lineup.

At the same time, Nvidia is eager to show that its latest products can outperform older chips like the H200, which U.S. President Donald Trump has allowed to flow to China. Reuters has reported that the chip, which was the predecessor to Nvidia’s current “Blackwell” chip, is in high demand in China, which has alarmed China hawks across the U.S. political spectrum.

Huang told financial analysts after his keynote that demand is strong for the H200 chips in China, and Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said Nvidia has applied for licenses to ship the chips to China but was waiting for approvals from the U.S. and other governments to ship them.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in Las Vegas; Editing by Matthew Lewis)