U.S. stock futures are higher Monday morning as crude oil futures surged above $106 per barrel. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 37 points to 12,191 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index climbed 4.80 points to 1,325.10. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 12.75 points to 2,372.50.

Positive sentiment ruled the European markets today: STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.61%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.79%.

Analyst Upgrades

• Goldman upgraded Eaton (ETN) to conviction buy from neutral.
• AECOM Technology (ACM) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Macquarie.
• Piper Jaffray upgraded Hologic (HOLX), Gen-Probe (GPRO) and Qiagen (QGEN) to overweight from neutral.
• GeoMet (GMET) was upgraded to accumulate from neutral at Global Hunter.
• Accretive Health (AH) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at RW Baird.
• Morgan Stanley upgraded Reinsurance Group (RGA) to overweight from equal weight.
• BofA/Merrill upgraded Clearwire (CLWR) to neutral from underperform.

This post is part of our Battle of the Brands feature. Let us know which brand you prefer, and check out other Battle of the Brands posts.

Cold Stone Creamery vs. Dairy Queen? This is Liston vs. Ali, American Idol vs. 60 Minutes, Sacha Baron Cohen vs. Woody Allen. The young, brash upstart vs. the wily veteran champion. With butterfat.

Dairy Queen is, of course, the veteran. At 4,500 readily recognizable locations throughout the U.S., the Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) company serves up a time-tested menu of coney dogs, Dilly Bars, and Blizzards at prices that the average Joe can afford. So what if the décor is 1980s, and its ice cream is to cream as bologna is to steak?

Cold Stone is the brash upstart, starting in 1988 in Tempe, Arizona. Owned by the privately-held Kahala Corp., it has grown to over 1,400 outlets in strip malls across the country. The super-premium product it serves is hand-scooped, full of butterfat and bounteous flavor. The price is also bounteous, though; in my neighborhood, a single scoop of vanilla on a wafer cone sets me back $3.58.