New York, Jan 9, 2026, 06:50 EST — Premarket
United States Brent Oil Fund (BNO), a Brent price-linked ETF, slipped 0.5% in U.S. premarket trade to $29.12, after ending Thursday up 4.4% at $29.27. The fund has traded between $24.72 and $33.39 over the past 52 weeks.
BNO is designed to track daily percentage moves in Brent crude, using ICE Brent futures and rolling into the next contract as expiry nears. It gives stock-market investors a way to take a view on the Brent price without trading futures directly.
Brent futures were up 43 cents, or 0.7%, at $62.42 a barrel by 1106 GMT, after both Brent and U.S. crude jumped more than 3% on Thursday, Reuters reported. “Iran protests seem to be gathering momentum, leading the market to worry about disruptions,” said Ole Hansen, head of commodity analysis at Saxo Bank, while Haitong Futures pointed to rising inventories and warned the rebound could prove hard to sustain unless Iran risks escalate. reuters.com
Venezuela is the other moving part, with Chevron, Vitol and Trafigura among firms vying for U.S. government deals to export up to 50 million barrels that PDVSA has accumulated in inventory, sources familiar with the matter said. The group is set to meet at the White House on Friday as Washington presses for control over Venezuelan oil sales and revenue, Reuters reported.
Investors are watching the summit, but some are wary of big, fast commitments. “Investors will want to see long-lasting stability and good fiscal terms,” said David Byrns, a portfolio manager at American Century Investments, a major Chevron and Exxon shareholder, according to Reuters. reuters.com
The Venezuela shift is already showing up in products: the premium for high-sulphur fuel oil in Asia over the West hit an eight-month high as traders bet more Venezuelan crude and fuel oil will be diverted to the United States, tightening supply into Asia, Reuters said. The East-West swap — a gauge of the price gap between Asia and the West — jumped above $27 a barrel.
Still, this is headline-driven trade. A quieter stretch in Tehran, or a messier set of Venezuela signals, could cool the bid fast, and oil-linked funds tend to amplify that swing. For BNO holders, the futures “roll” can also help or hurt returns when later-dated contracts trade above the front month, a structure known as contango.
Next up, traders will juggle the December U.S. payrolls report before the opening bell and a Supreme Court ruling on the legality of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, both potential jolts for the dollar and risk appetite. Any readout from the White House talks on Venezuela is the other near-term trigger.
