Commodity Compass – 1/9 - Venezuela News has Oil on Edge

This week commodity markets were dominated by a mix of geopolitical risk, macroeconomic signals, and shifting expectations about inflation and growth. Oil prices were especially reactive to unfolding events in Venezuela, where U.S. intervention and moves to potentially redirect Venezuelan oil exports into global markets injected volatility into crude benchmarks. At the same time, U.S. economic data — notably weaker-than-expected jobs figures — reinforced that labor market momentum has slowed, tempering inflation pressures and complicating Federal Reserve policy expectations for 2026. Support for Commodity Compass comes from TerraHutton.