Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Boeing (BA), Dupont (DD) and 3M (MMM). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Wednesday the Dow closed up +147.21 (+0.95%) at 15,676.94

Year-to-date the Dow is up +19.63%..

This morning the Dow was indicated to open up +27 points.

Investors got surprised yesterday when the Fed chose to maintain its $85-billion bond buying program, which has been supporting both America’s economic recovery and stock markets around the world. Most had expected the Fed to begin tapering its massive quantitative easing program.

Disney (DIS) was downgraded to “Equal Weight” from “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley.

Procter & Gamble Co (PG) continued its upward climb and gained 0.60 percent in premarket trade on Thursday.

Verizon Communication (VZ) was down 0.84 percent in premarket trade after complaints about connectivity to the company’s high-speed LTE network.

European markets are higher and Asian markets ended higher.

The national average price of gasoline is down 1.2 cents to $3.494 per gallon.

Earnings Reports

There are no Dow stocks expected to report earnings soon.

Earnings reports from Wednesday include:

FedEx Corporation (FDX) reported EPS of $1.53 on revenue of $11.00 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.45 on revenue of $10.79 billion.

General Mills, Inc. (GIS) reported EPS of $0.70 on revenue of $4.37 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.66 on revenue of $4.05 billion.

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) reported EPS of $0.59 on revenue of $3.38 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.53 on revenue of $8.21 billion.

Other stocks expected to report earnings today include:

ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) is expected to report EPS of $0.45 on revenue of $4.38 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.44 on revenue of $3.31 billion.

IHS Inc. (IHS) is expected to report EPS of $1.18 on revenue of $468.48 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.99 on revenue of $385.61 million.

Pier 1 Imports, Inc. (PIR) is expected to report EPS of $0.21 on revenue of $404.23 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.19 on revenue of $367.62 million.

Rite Aid Corporation (RAD) is expected to report a loss of $0.04 per share on revenue of $6.27 billion, compared to last year’s loss of $0.05 per share on revenue of $6.23 billion.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Home Depot Inc. (HD).

Home Depot Inc. (HD) is up 25.09% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected +38,000 to 330,000, previous -31,000 to 292,000. Weekly continuing claims expected +29,000 to 2.900 million, previous -73,000 to 2.871 million.

0830 ET Q2 current account balance expected -$97.0 billion, Q1 -$106.1 billion.

0830 ET USDA weekly Export Sales.

1000 ET Sep Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index expected +1.0 to 10.3, Aug -10.5 to 9.3.

1000 ET Aug existing home sales expected -2.6% to 5.25 million, July +6.5% to 5.39 million.

1000 ET Aug leading indicators expected +0.6% July +0.6%.

1100 ET Treasury announces amounts of 2-year T-notes (previous $34 billion), 5-year T-notes (previous $35 billion) and 7-year T-notes (previous $29 billion) to be auctioned Sep 24-26.

1220 ET Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto delivers a speech titled Looking for Common Ground and New Solutions in Household and Consumer Finance at the 2013 Policy Summit on Housing, Human Capital and Inequality.

1300 ET Treasury auctions $13 billion of 10-year TIPS.