Dow stocks at 52 week highs include JPMorgan (JPM), Microsoft (MSFT) and UnitedHealth (UNH). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.
The Market
Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +42 points.
Thursday, the Dow closed up +108.88 (+0.67%) at 16,331.05.
Year-to-date the Dow is down -1.48%.
It’s quadruple witching day today.
Shares of Nike (NKE) are down 3% after the company said earnings could be squeezed over the next few quarters.
United Technologies (UTX) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Goldman Sachs.
Boeing (BA) was downgraded to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ at Goldman Sachs.
European stocks are higher and Asian stocks ended mostly higher.
The national average price of gasoline is unchanged at $3.528 per gallon.
Earnings Reports.
Nike (NKE) reported earnings on 3/20/14 after the market close. Nike reported Q3 continuing operations EPS of 76 cents, better than consensus of 72 cents, but then said it expects forex headwinds to reduce EPS growth in Q4 and into fiscal 2015.
Notable earnings reports from Thursday include:
Nike, Inc. (NKE) reported third quarter EPS of $0.76 on revenue of $7.00 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.73 on revenue of $6.19 billion.
ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) reported third quarter EPS of $0.62 on revenue of $4.39 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.55 on revenue of $3.85 billion.
IHS Inc. (IHS) reported first quarter EPS of $1.28 on revenue of $524.50 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.08 on revenue of $382.52 million.
Stocks reporting earnings today include:
Darden Restaurants, Inc. (DRI) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $0.82 on revenue of $2.26 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.02 on revenue of $2.26 billion.
Tiffany & Co. (TIF) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $1.52 on revenue of $1.31 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.40 on revenue of $1.31 billion.
Today’s Featured Dow Stock
Home Depot Inc. (HD) is down -2.73% year-to-date.
Financial Calendar
1145 ET St. Louis Fed President James Bullard speaks on a Brookings Institute panel on Debt and Incomplete Financial Markets: a Case for Nominal GDP.
1345 ET Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher delivers a speech at the London School of Economics and Political Sciences Systemic Risk Centre Conference on Forward Guidance: Fad or the Future of Monetary Policy.
1500 ET USDA Feb Cold Storage.
1500 ET USDA Feb Cattle on Feed.
1630 ET Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota speaks on a panel discussion of Transitional and Longer-Term Challenges for Monetary Policy.
1920 ET Fed Governor Jeremy Stein delivers keynote address at the International Research Forum on Monetary Policy.