The Dow Market Happenings For Thursday, March 27, 2014

Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Caterpillar (CAT) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open down -10 points.

Wednesday, the Dow closed down -98.89 (-0.60%) at 16,268.99.

Year-to-date the Dow is down -1.86%.

The Labor Department reported jobless claims decreased by 10,000 to 311,000 in the period ended March 22. The median forecast called for 323,000 claims. The four-week average of applications filed with state agencies dropped to the lowest level since September.

American Express (AXP) said it will increase its quarterly dividend by 13% to 26 cents per share and that it will repurchase up to $4.4 billion of common shares during 2014 and up to an additional $1 billion in the first quarter of 2015.

The Fed said that after its stress tests for this year it rejected the capital plans of Citigroup (C) , HSBC North America Holdings (HSBC) , RBS Citizens Financial Group (RBS) , and Santander Holdings (SAN) . The Fed also said it objected to the capital plan of Zions Bancorporation (ZION ) because the firm did not meet the minimum, post-stress tier-1 common ratio of 5 percent.

European stocks are lower and Asian stocks ended mixed.

The national average price of gasoline is up one-tenth of a cent to $3.536 per gallon.

Earnings Reports.

There are no Dow stocks expected to report earnings near term.

Notable earnings reports from Wednesday include:

Lindsay Corporation (LNN) reported second quarter EPS of $1.04 on revenue of $152.80 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.50 on revenue of $175.54 million.

Paychex, Inc. (PAYX) reported third quarter EPS of $0.44 on revenue of $636.50 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.40 on revenue of $593.30 million.

Stocks reporting earnings today include:

Accenture plc. (ACN) is expected to report second quarter EPS of $1.04 on revenue of $7.21 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.00 on revenue of $7.06 billion.

Gamestop Corporation (GME) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $1.93 on revenue of $3.79 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $2.16 on revenue of $3.56 billion.

lululemon athletica inc. (LULU) is expected to report fourth quarter EPS of $0.73 on revenue of $517.62 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.75 on revenue of $485.49 million.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) is up +5.96% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected +4,000 to 324,000, previous +5,000 to 320,000. Weekly continuing claims expected -7,000 to 2.882 million, previous +41,000 to 2.889 million.

0830 ET Q4 GDP expected revised higher to +2.7% (q/q annualized) from +2.4%. Q4 personal consumption expected revised higher to +2.8% from +2.6%. Q4 GDP price index expected unrevised at +1.6%. Q4 GDP PCE expected unrevised at +1.3%.

0830 ET Cleveland Fed President Sandra Pianalto speaks at the University of Dayton.

0830 ET USDA weekly Export Sales.

1000 ET Feb pending home sales expected +0.2% m/m and -9.0% y/y, Jan +0.1% m/m and -9.1% y/y.

1300 ET Treasury auctions $29 billion 7-year T-notes.

2130 ET Chicago Fed President Charles Evans delivers a speech at an Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong.

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