NEW YORK, April 14, 2026, 13:07 EDT
- By 11:26 a.m. ET, the Dow was up 290.36 points. The S&P 500 advanced 0.88%, while the Nasdaq added 1.41%.
- Producer prices advanced 0.5% in March, missing economists’ projection of 1.1%, while earnings from BlackRock and Citigroup gave financial stocks some footing.
- Oil slipped under $100 a barrel again, while the IMF trimmed its projection for global growth in 2026 to 3.1%.
U.S. stocks climbed Tuesday, with the S&P 500 nearly erasing its recent losses from the Middle East turmoil. Hints of a possible restart in U.S.-Iran talks, paired with a new batch of earnings, buoyed sentiment. As of 11:26 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had gained 290.36 points, or 0.60%. The S&P 500 was up 0.88%, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 1.41%.
This is relevant now as Wall Street weighs whether the last six weeks signal a short-lived oil shock or mark the beginning of a stickier inflation stretch. Investors found cover in a mild March producer-price report and an upbeat kickoff to Q1 earnings, despite the IMF dialing back its global growth forecast for 2026.
On Wall Street, trades have flipped direction with nearly every war update. Bob Savage, who leads markets macro strategy at BNY, pointed out that the move from missile strikes to talk of diplomacy has some investors searching for “a beginning to the end of the war.” For Art Hogan at B Riley Wealth, the upcoming earnings season could steer attention away from global turmoil. He expects it should help investors “shift their focus from the macro to the micro.” Reuters
Producer prices climbed 0.5% in March, missing the 1.1% jump economists polled by Reuters had penciled in. On a year-over-year basis, the index picked up speed to 4.0%. Gasoline stood out, surging 15.7%. Traders continued to see about a one-in-three shot at a Fed rate cut before year-end.
Corporate earnings steered the market. BlackRock jumped 4.2% with quarterly profit up and $130 billion in net inflows, most of that coming from iShares ETFs — those funds move on the exchange like stocks. Citigroup added 1.5%, reaching its highest mark since 2008 after beating profit forecasts. Johnson & Johnson notched a 1.4% gain. But Wells Fargo slumped 4.8% after coming up short on interest income, and JPMorgan fell 0.6% on its own results.
Strategists are edging back into U.S. stocks. On Tuesday, Citi lifted its call on U.S. equities to “overweight”—that’s a recommendation to hold more than the benchmark. BlackRock bumped up its stance a day before, while Morgan Stanley pointed to the recent dip as a correction—just a sharp pullback so far, not a full-blown downturn. Jean Boivin, head of BlackRock’s investment institute, pointed out, “Tech’s valuation premium has been eroded.” Reuters
Oil’s slide gave some relief. Brent dipped to roughly $95 a barrel, with U.S. crude at $92.60—both down from levels above $100 just a day ago. The 10-year Treasury yield pulled back as well, landing near 4.28%. Still, Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo, warned that “markets were trading hope, not resolution,” and she expects trading to remain volatile, driven by headlines. Reuters
Profit expectations are still doing the heavy lifting. According to LSEG data cited by Reuters, analysts now project 2026 S&P 500 earnings growth at 19%, up from 15% before the conflict. Oil hasn’t come down much—prices remain about 40% higher than they were in late February. The IMF, meanwhile, has trimmed its 2026 global growth outlook to 3.1%, a 0.2-point cut compared with January, and flagged that an extended or widening conflict could shake up markets and put the U.S. equity rebound at risk.
