Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday linked the seizure of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela to the Trump administration’s counterdrug efforts in Latin America as tensions escalate with the government of President Nicolás Maduro.
Noem's assertion, which came during her testimony to the House Homeland Security Committee, provided the Republican administration's most thorough assessment so far of why it took control of the vessel on Wednesday. Incredibly unusual, the use of U.S. forces to seize a merchant ship was a sharp escalation in the administration’s pressure campaign on Maduro, who has been charged with narcoterrorism in the United States.
Trump officials added to it Thursday by imposing sanctions on three of Maduro's nephews. The Venezuelan leader discussed the rising tensions with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin reaffirmed his support for Maduro's policy of “protecting national interests and sovereignty in the face of growing external pressure.”
Asked to delineate the U.S. Coast Guard's role in the tanker seizure, Noem called it “a successful operation directed by the president to ensure that we’re pushing back on a regime that is systematically covering and flooding our country with deadly drugs and killing our next generation of Americans.”
Noem went on to lay out the ”lethal doses of cocaine" she said had been kept from entering the U.S. as a result.
Asked Thursday whether U.S. operations in the region were about drugs or oil, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also gave a bifurcated answer, saying the administration was “focused on doing many things in the Western Hemisphere." She noted that such seizures could continue, arguing that the commodities being transported were used to fund the illegal drug trade.
“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said.
The Justice Department had obtained a warrant for the vessel because it had been known for “carrying black market, sanctioned oil,” Leavitt said, adding that “the United States does intend to get the oil” that was onboard the tanker.
Trump told reporters a day earlier at the White House that the tanker "was seized for a very good reason.” Asked what would happen to the oil aboard the tanker, Trump said, “Well, we keep it, I guess.”
The U.S. has built up the largest military presence in the region in decades and launched a series of deadly strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, a campaign that is facing growing scrutiny from Congress.
Trump, who has said land attacks are coming soon but has not offered more details, has broadly justified the moves as necessary to stem the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs into the U.S.
Venezuela’s government said in a statement that the tanker seizure “constitutes a blatant theft and an act of international piracy.” Maduro has insisted the real purpose of the U.S. military operations is to force him from office.
Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.
This image from video posted on Attorney General Pam Bondi's X account, and partially redacted by the source, shows an oil tanker being seized by U.S. forces off the coast of Venezuela, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (U.S. Attorney General's Office/X via AP)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is rising toward records on Thursday, even as a sell-off for Oracle and worries about a potential bubble in artificial-intelligence technology weigh on the market.
The S&P 500 inched up 0.2% and was on track to eke past its all-time closing high, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial leaped 664 points, or 1.4%, and was set to top its own record set last month. Weakness for AI-related stocks, though, dragged the Nasdaq composite down 0.2%, as of 2:50 p.m. Eastern time.
If the market does return to records, it would mark the latest time it’s powered through what had appeared to be a debilitating set of worries. Some of the most recent included concerns about what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates and whether all the dollars flowing into AI chips and data centers will produce profits and productivity as prolific as proponents are promising.
Such worries had sent Wall Street last month to some of its worst days since its sell-off during April, but several factors helped it regain its footing. Key among them was a continuing parade of companies saying they’re making bigger profits than analysts expected. Stock prices tend to track with corporate profits over the long term.
The Fed also on Wednesday cut its main interest rate for the third time this year and indicated another cut may be ahead in 2026. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can boost the economy and send prices for investments higher, even if they potentially make inflation worse.
The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, did hint that interest rates may be on hold for a while. But he helped soothe nerves when his comments appeared to be less harsh in shutting off the possibility of more cuts in 2026 than investors had expected.
Easier interest rates can give the biggest benefits to the smallest companies, which are more likely to be losing money and often need to borrow to grow. The Russell 2000 index of the smallest U.S. stocks jumped 1.2% to help lead the market.
Banks and other companies whose profits are most closely tied to the strength of the U.S. economy also rallied. Gains of 3% for Goldman Sachs and 6% for Visa were the two strongest forces pushing the Dow higher.
Eli Lilly rose 1.6% after announcing encouraging results from a clinical trial for adult patients who are obese or overweight and have knee osteoarthritis, without diabetes.
The Walt Disney Co. added 1.8% after OpenAI said the entertainment giant is investing $1 billion in it. It’s part of a three-year agreement that will also allow OpenAI to use more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters to generate short, user-prompted social videos.
Planet Labs PBC soared 36.8% after the provider of satellite images used by governments and businesses reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
But a return to records for the U.S. stock market would not mean all the worries are gone.
Oracle dropped 9.8% and had briefly been on track Thursday for its worst day since 2001, when the dot-com bubble was still deflating. It reported 14% growth in revenue for the latest quarter, which came up just short of analysts’ expectations, though its profit topped forecasts.
Doubts remain about whether all the spending that Oracle is doing on AI technology will be worth it. Analysts said they were surprised by how much Oracle may spend on AI investments this fiscal year, and questions continue about how the company will pay for it.
Such doubts are weighing on the AI industry broadly, even as many billions of dollars continue to flow in.
Nvidia, the chip company that’s become the poster child of the AI boom and is raking in close to $20 billion each month, fell 1.6% Thursday. It was the single heaviest weight on the S&P 500.
Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison said it will continue to buy chips from Nvidia, but it’s now taking a policy of “chip neutrality,” where it will use “whatever chips our customers want to buy. There are going to be a lot of changes in AI technology over the next few years and we must remain agile in response to those changes.”
Also on the losing end of Wall Street was Oxford Industries. The company behind Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer dropped 21% after highlighting how its customers have been seeking out deals and are “highly value-driven.”
CEO Tom Chubb said the start of the holiday shopping season has been weaker than the company expected, and it cut its forecast for revenue for the full year.
Lower- and middle-income households are feeling the squeeze of high prices following years of high inflation, along with a slowing job market. That means a roughly 25% chance of a recession, according to Barry Bannister, chief equity strategist at Stifel.
Even all the spending underway for AI chips is “not enough to offset a consumer pull-back,” he said, and the U.S. stock market still broadly looks expensive relative to history.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report said the number of U.S. workers applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week by more than economists expected. That’s a potential indication of rising layoffs.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury held at 4.13%, where it was on late Wednesday and down from 4.18% on Tuesday.
In stock markets abroad, indexes ticked higher in Europe after falling in much of Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index sank 0.9%, hurt by a sharp drop for SoftBank Group Corp., which is a major investor in AI.
AP Writers Teresa Cerojano and Matt Ott contributed.
Specialists Alex Weitzman, left, and Meric Greenbaum work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader William Lawrence works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Gregg Maloney works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Michael Gallucci works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Financial information is displayed while traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
A television on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, display a news conference with Fed chairman Jerome Powell, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
