By Sarah Taaffe-Maguire, business and economics reporter

The price of oil will be in sharp focus today and in the days and weeks to come as the US operation in Venezuela was both explicitly and implicitly about running the South American nation’s vast fossil fuel reserves.

For now, the impact has been minimal. After an initial spike, a barrel of Brent crude oil (the benchmark) has fallen back to $60.45. That’s slightly more expensive than the $60.03 seen at one point on Friday.

It is, however, far below the $82 high point of 2025, recorded nearly a year ago. 

The price of crude oil, the kind the Trump administration is after in Venezuela, also fell to $56.91, down from $57.94 on Friday morning.

Something else is happening in the market, too. Investors are moving money into metals, investments perceived to be less risky but that offer no returns.

The price of gold, silver and copper has all increased.

Gold is now hovering around an all-time high, costing $4,420 an ounce.

Similarly, silver prices rose nearly 4% to $75.50, and copper rose 3.4%.Â