NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting slightly higher in mixed trading Monday, a downshift following bursts higher for stocks in Asia earlier in the day and Wall Street’s own rally to close last week.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% and inched closer to its record set two weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 21 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 2:05 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.
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Specialist Anthony Matesic works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A security guard stands guard at the gate of Tokyo Stock Exchange building, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
The relatively modest moves followed a 3.9% burst higher for Japan’s Nikkei 225 to a record. Stocks rallied there following a landslide victory for the prime minister’s political party in a parliamentary election. The thought is that will give Sanae Takaichi more power to push through reforms that will boost the economy and market.
On Wall Street, the U.S. stock market is coming off its best day since May to close last week, but several concerns still hang over the market. That includes criticism that stocks have simply become too expensive following their run to records.
Worries are also heavy about whether all the huge spending by Big Tech and other companies on AI can produce enough profit to make the investments worth it.
Stocks were nearly evenly split between gainers and losers in the S&P 500, but some of the winners from that rush into AI helped prop up the market. Chip companies rose, for example, with Nvidia up 3% and Broadcom up 4.4%. They were two of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500.
Kroger climbed 3.5% after the grocer named a former Walmart executive as its new chief executive officer.
Transocean reversed an early loss and rose 5.3% after the offshore drilling company said it would buy Valaris in an all-stock deal valued at $5.8 billion. Valaris leaped 32.8%.
On the losing end was Hims & Hers, which sank 17.4% after Novo Nordisk filed a lawsuit and alleged Hims & Hers is unlawfully selling versions of its weight-loss treatments. The suit follows a move by the U.S Food and Drug Administration to restrict access to the ingredients needed to copy popular weight-loss medications.
Hims & Hers said, “Big Phama is weaponizing the US judicial system to limit consumer choice” in a post on the X account for the company's communications team.
Novo Nordisk’s stock that trades in the United States rose 4%.
Workday fell 6.2% after the AI platform said its CEO, Carl Eschenbach, is stepping down. Company Co-founder Aneel Bhusri is returning as chief executive.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady ahead of several potentially market-moving reports coming later in the week. The U.S. government will offer the latest monthly update on the health of the job market on Wednesday. Friday will bring the latest monthly reading of inflation at the consumer level.
Either report could sway expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates. The Fed has put its cuts to interest rates on hold, but a weakening of the job market could push it to resume more quickly. Too-hot inflation, on the other hand, could keep it on hold for longer.
One of the reasons the U.S. stock market remains close to records is the expectation that the Fed will continue cutting interest rates later this year. Lower rates can give the economy a boost, though they can also worsen inflation.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.20% from 4.22% late Friday.
Other markets that had whipped through more violent moves over recent weeks were showing some more strength or stability.
Gold rose 2% to settle at $5,079.40 per ounce. It’s been swinging sharply after roughly doubling in price over 12 months and, it has bounced between $4,500 and nearly $5,600. Silver, whose price has been even wilder, jumped 6.9% Monday.
Bitcoin dipped back toward $70,000 after climbing above $71,000 over the weekend. It had dropped close to $60,000 last week, more than halfway below its record set in October.
In stock markets abroad, indexes jumped across Asia with Japan’s surge. South Korea’s Kospi leaped 4.1%, while stocks rose 1.8% in Hong Kong and 1.4% in Shanghai.
The gains were more modest in Europe, where Germany's DAX returned 1.2% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.6%.
AP Videojournalist Mayuko Ono and AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.
Specialist Anthony Matesic works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A security guard stands guard at the gate of Tokyo Stock Exchange building, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People walk in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela's top prosecutor said on Monday that his office had requested the arrest of one of the closest allies of opposition leader María Corina Machado, less than 12 hours after his release from a detention facility as part of a government move to free those facing politically motivated accusations.
The attorney general’s statement did not say whether Juan Pablo Guanipa was rearrested, or give indication of his whereabouts. The government had released him along with several other prominent opposition members on Sunday following lengthy politically motivated detentions.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab's office posted on social media that it had “requested the competent court to revoke the precautionary measure granted to Juan Pablo Guanipa, due to his non-compliance with the conditions imposed by the aforementioned court.”
It did not elaborate on what conditions Guanipa, a former governor for the opposition, violated during the hours he was free, but said authorities were seeking house arrest.
Guanipa's son, Ramón, told reporters Monday that a group of men in three vehicles intercepted his father and others traveling around 11:45 p.m. Sunday in a neighborhood in the capital, Caracas. They were armed with long guns and wore civilian clothes and bulletproof vests.
Ramón Guanipa said authorities have not yet notified him of his father's whereabouts and their decision to place him on house arrest. He said his father did not violate the two conditions of his release — monthly check-ins with a court and no travel outside Venezuela — and showed reporters the court document listing them.
The development marked the latest twist in the political turmoil in Venezuela in the wake of the U.S. military's seizure on Jan. 3 of then-President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from a military base compound in Caracas in a stunning operation that landed them in New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.
The government of Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez began releasing prisoners days after she was sworn in and has faced mounting pressure to free hundreds of people whose detentions months or years ago have been linked to their political activities. The releases also followed a visit to Venezuela of representatives of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Venezuelan-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal confirmed the release of at least 30 people Sunday.
Some of those freed Sunday joined families waiting outside detention facilities for their loved ones. They chanted “We are not afraid! We are not afraid!” and marched a short distance.
“I am convinced that our country has completely changed,” Guanipa told reporters after his release. “I am convinced that it is now up to all of us to focus on building a free and democratic country.”
Guanipa had spent more than eight months in custody at a facility in Caracas.
“My father cannot be a criminal ... simply for making statements,” Ramón Guanipa said. "How much longer will speaking out be a crime in this country?”
Several members of Machado’s political organization were among the released Sunday, including attorney Perkins Rocha and local organizer María Oropeza, who had in 2024 livestreamed her arrest by military intelligence officers as they broke into her home with a crowbar. Rocha was released to house arrest.
“They are terrified that Venezuelan society will mobilize and express its voice civically,” Machado, referring to Rodríguez's government, told reporters Monday in Washington. “But let me tell you something, there’s no going back... What will Juan Pablo become now? What will Perkins become as a prisoner in his own home? A reference in this fight.”
Guanipa was detained in late May and accused by Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello of participating in an alleged “terrorist group” that was plotting to boycott that month’s legislative election. Guanipa’s brother Tomás rejected the accusation, and said the arrest was meant to crack down on dissent.
Rodríguez’s government announced Jan. 8 that it would free a significant number of those arrested — a central demand of the country’s opposition and human rights organizations with backing from the United States — but families and rights watchdogs have criticized authorities for the slow pace of the releases.
The ruling party-controlled National Assembly last week began debating an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds. The opposition and nongovernmental organizations have reacted with cautious optimism as well as with suggestions and demands for more information on the contents of the proposal.
National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who is the acting president's brother, on Friday posted a video on Instagram showing him outside a detention center in Caracas and saying that “everyone” would be released no later than next week, once the amnesty bill is approved.
Delcy Rodríguez, the acting president, and Volker Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke by phone in late January. His spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, in a statement said he sent a team to the country and “offered our support to help Venezuela work on a road map for dialogue and reconciliation" in which human rights should be centered.
This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that includes an upcoming documentary.
A supporter of the opposition waves a Venezuelan flag from a passing vehicle next to El Helicoide, the headquarters of the intelligence service and a detention center, after several political prisoners were released from custody in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
From left, opposition members Dignora Hernández, María Oropeza and Catalina celebrate with supporters after their release from custody near El Helicoide, the Venezuelan intelligence headquarters and detention center, in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Opposition supporters greet political activist Jesus Armas after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa rides on the back of a motorcycle after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.(AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa rides on the back of a motorcycle after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.(AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa, right, and political activist Jesus Armas ride on the back of motorbikes after their release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
Opposition leaders María Oropeza and Juan Pablo Guanipa, left, ride motorbikes through Caracas, Venezuela, after their release from custody, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Opposition leader Juan Pablo Guanipa records a video message to supporters after his release from prison in Caracas, Venezuela, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)
