Oil prices swing after U.S. captures Venezuela's Maduro

Oil prices swung on Sunday, as investors weighed market forces after President Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela and its vast oil reserves.

Oil prices swung overnight Sunday, as investors and traders weighed the market forces that could be unleashed by President Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela and his comments about what could be next for the country and its massive oil reserves.

The price of U.S. crude oil, known by traders as West Texas Intermediate, initially fell when trading began at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, before rising and falling throughout overnight trading. WTI was higher by 0.3% as of 6:30 a.m. ET Monday.

The international benchmark, known as Brent crude oil, followed a similar pattern. As of early Monday, it was trading higher again, up 0.2%.

Shortly after U.S. forces captured the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro early Saturday, Trump said,“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure and start making money for the country."

Several of the companies that could be well positioned to profit from a surge in oil activity in Venezuela saw their stock prices jump Monday.