Chevron, TSMC, ASML and Auction Technology
Shares in Chevron surged 7% in pre-market trading on Monday, as investors bet the US oil major was well placed to invest in Venezuela’s energy sector. The company already operates in the country under a special licence granted by the Trump administration.
The move followed a major US military operation in Venezuela over the weekend that resulted in the capture of president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in an intervention that has reverberated across global markets.
US president Donald Trump has since said the White House would “run” the South American country until “a safe, proper and judicious transition” could be achieved.
Venezuela is a founding member of OPEC and holds the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves, estimated at 303 billion barrels by the US Energy Information Administration. That equates to about 17% of global oil (CL=F, BZ=F) reserves.
Read more: Stocks climb despite US military action in Venezuela
Trump has said attracting US investment into Venezuela’s energy industry is now a central objective of his administration, raising expectations that American companies such as Chevron (CVX) could play a leading role in any reopening of the sector.
Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co climbed by the most since April on Monday, as the world’s largest contract chipmaker carried a continued wave of optimism over AI demand into the new year.
Shares in the key supplier to Nvidia (NVDA) and Apple (AAPL) jumped 5% in New York and were up more than 3% in pre-market trading after Goldman Sachs (GS) raised its price target by 35%, citing sustained capacity tightness and robust demand driven by AI.
Goldman (GS) lifted its target price on TSMC (TSM, 2330.TW) to NT$2,330 ( £55/$74) from NT$1,720 and reiterated a “conviction buy” rating, saying rapid growth in AI-related computing was likely to keep silicon demand ahead of supply well into 2027.
The brokerage said exponential growth in token consumption was reshaping long-term semiconductor demand, reinforcing TSMC’s (TSM, 2330.TW) dominant position in advanced manufacturing.
Taipei-listed shares rose as much as 7% to a record high of NT$1,695. The stock gained more than 40% in 2025.
Read more: Oil prices fall after Trump’s Venezuela strikes
Goldman (GS) said it now expects TSMC (TSM, 2330.TW) to deploy more than $150bn in capital expenditure between 2026 and 2028 to meet structural demand, while forecasting continued tightness in 3 nanometre and 5 nanometre wafer capacity through 2026 and 2027.
Shares in ASML rose on Monday after Bernstein upgraded the Dutch chipmaking equipment supplier to outperform and named it its top pick among European semiconductor stocks for 2026, citing accelerating memory investment, stronger logic demand and a more attractive valuation backdrop.
