Pre-Market Stock Futures:
The futures are trading mixed this morning, after what started as another week of the same old song and dance yesterday, before stocks turned around before noon, and it was an off-and-running, risk-off Monday, with all the major market indices posting strong gains and finishing the day higher. Once again, the small-cap heavy Russell 2000 was your winner, finishing the day up up 1.31% at 2, 665, while the Nasdaq also came in strong, finishing up 1.23% at 23,183. The S&P 500 closed higher for the 8th straight day at 6,886, up 1.02%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 48,218, up 0.63%. Wall Street pundits cited hopes for an early end to the Iran war and the start of the first-quarter earnings season, which Goldman Sachs kicked off with huge Q1 results, despite shares falling, as reasons for the solid start to the week.
Treasury Bonds:
Except for the shortest-maturity governement debt, yields were down across the curve as buyers returned for the safe haven provided by U.S. sovereign bonds. The 30-year bond closed Monday at 4.90%, while the 10-year benchmark Treasury note was last seen at 4.30%.
Oil and Gas:
Despite the failure to achieve any meaningful results at the ceasefire talks, the narrative over the energy complex took a significant turn, as President Trump vowed to block the Straits of Hormuz. This has caused a massive shift, with oil tankers bound for Iran changing course and heading straight to the Gulf of Mexico and South America, where they are loading and departing with zero oil from Iran. Brent Crude closed Monday at $98.24, up 3.19%. West Texas Intermediate finished the day at $97.97, up 1.45%. Natural gas closed Monday at $2.63, virtually unchanged.
Gold:
The precious metals slumped out of the gate, opening slowly on Monday as much of Wall Street and the rest of the investing world settled in to see the first-quarter opening numbers. For gold investors, many analysts in the sector continue to note the trading consolidation territory the stocks have been in since the beginning of the year, and being patient may be a great move now. The last price for spot Gold was unchanged at $4,4740, while Silver closed trading on Monday at $73.76.
Crypto:
The Cryptocurrency markets traded lower on Monday, initially driven by “risk-off” sentiment following the collapse of US-Iran peace talks and a sharp rise in oil prices. However, when the markets reversed midday, selling slowed, and prices stabilized. Coinbase analysts noted that, despite lower cryptocurrency trading volume than earlier in the year, the overall market cap has recently increased, with significant, localized volatility in altcoins. That is a huge positive for a sector that has been cut in half since last fall. At 8 AM EDT, Bitcoin is trading at $74,400, while Ethereum is quoted at $2,377.
24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst research reports daily to identify new investment ideas for both investors and traders. Some of these daily analyst calls cover stocks to buy. Other calls cover stocks to sell or avoid. Remember that no single analyst call should ever be used as a basis to buy or sell a stock.
Here are some of the top Wall Street analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations seen on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.
Upgrades:
- Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral at Piper Sandler, which raised the target price for the biotech giant to $214 from $177.
- Birkenstock Holdings Plc. (NYSE: BIRK) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Seaport Research, which has a $52 target price for the shares.
- Eastman Chemical Company (NYSE: EMN) was raised to Buy from Neutral at JPMorgan, which lifted the target price for the shares to $80 from $70.
- Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at UBS with a $15 target price.
- Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) was raised to Neutral from Sell at UBS, with a $352 target price objective.
Downgrades:
- Fastly Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLY ) was downgraded to Hold from Buy at Craig-Hallum, with a $24 target price.
- Monday.com Ltd. (NASDAQ: MNDY) was downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Sandler, which dropped the target price for the stock to $85 from $100.
- Omega Healthcare Investors Inc. (NYSE: OHI) was downgraded to Underperform from Neutral at UBS, which lowered the target price for the stock to $46 from $52.
- Quiagen NV (NYSE: QGEN) was cut to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays, which lowered the target price to $44 from $58.
- Revvity Inc. (NYSE: RVTY) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Barclays, which chopped the target price to $95 from $118.
Initiations:
- J.M. Smucker Company (NYSE: SJM) was initiated with a Buy rating at BTIG, which has a $120 target price for the shares.
- Lennox International Inc. (NYSE: LII) was started with a Neutral rating at BNP Paribas, with a $535 target price.
- Netskope Inc. (NASDAQ: NTSK) was started with a Buy rating at Rosenblatt, which has set a $15 target price for the stock.
- SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) was initiated with an Outperform rating at Evercore ISI, with a $1,200 target price objective.
- Vertiv Holdings Co. (NYSE: VRT | VRT Price Prediction) was initiated with an Outperform rating at BNP Paribas, with a $345 target price.