Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Goldman Sachs (GS). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +47 points.

Wednesday, the Dow closed up +24.88 (+0.15%) at 17,156.85.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +3.50%.

Dow stock winners Wednesday included Home Depot (HD) +1.05% and Pfizer (PFE) +1.00%.

Dow stock losers Wednesday included Caterpillar (CAT) -0.83% and Visa (V) -0.81%

There were 17 Dow stock winners Wednesday.

Alibaba (BABA) is expected to price its IPO after the market close in a range of $66 to $68 per share. The Chinese e-commerce giant is set to start trading in New York Friday in what could be the biggest initial public offering of all time.

Scots have begun voting Thursday morning to decide whether Scotland should become an independent country.

DuPont (DD) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at JPMorgan Chase.

Yesterday the Fed said it was planning to finish tapering its quantitative easing program in October, but maintained that it would keep interest rates low for a “considerable time.” Although the bank was reluctant to provide details about when it would begin increasing interest rates, it did hint that rates would likely rise quickly once the bank started.

European stocks are higher and Asian markets ended higher.

The national average price of gasoline is down nine-tenths of a cent at $3.364 per gallon.

Earnings Reports.

Nike (NKE) will report earnings on 9/25/14 after the market close.

Notable earnings reports from Wednesday include:

FedEx Corporation (FDX) reported first quarter EPS of $2.10 on revenue of $11.70 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.53 on revenue of $11.02 billion.

General Mills, Inc. (GIS) reported first quarter EPS of $0.61 on revenue of $4.27 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.70 on revenue of $4.37 billion.

Lennar Corporation (LEN) reported third quarter EPS of $0.78 on revenue of $2.01 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.54 on revenue of $1.60 billion.

United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) reported fourth quarter EPS of $0.67 on revenue of $1.76 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.65 on revenue of $1.64 billion.

Stocks reporting earnings today include:

ConAgra Foods, Inc. (CAG) is expected to report first quarter EPS of $0.35 on revenue of $3.77 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.37 on revenue of $4.20 billion.

IHS Inc. (IHS) is expected to report third quarter EPS of $1.44 on revenue of $556.66 million, compared to last year’s EPS of $1.27 on revenue of $480.29 million.

Oracle Corporation (ORCL) is expected to report first quarter EPS of $0.64 on revenue of $8.77 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.59 on revenue of $8.77 billion.

Rite Aid Corporation (RAD) is expected to report second quarter EPS of $0.06 on revenue of $6.47 billion, compared to last year’s EPS of $0.03 on revenue of $6.28 billion.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Chevron Corp. (CVX)

Chevron Corp. (CVX) is down -0.15% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected -10,000 to 305,000, previous +11,000 to 315,000. Weekly continuing claims expected -21,000 to 2.466 million, previous +9,000 to 2.487 million.

0830 ET USDA weekly Export Sales.

0830 ET Aug housing starts expected -5.2% to 1.037 million, Jul +15.7% to 1.093 million. Aug building permits expected -1.6% to 1.040 million, Jul +8.6% to 1.057 million.

0845 ET Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaks to a conference in Washington D.C. via prerecorded video on The Importance of Asset Building for Low and Middle Income Households

1000 ET Sep Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index expected -5.0 to 23.0, Aug +4.1 to 28.0.

1100 ET Treasury announces amount of 2-year T-notes to be auctioned (previous $29 billion), 2-year floating-rate notes (previous $13 billion), 5-year T-notes (previous $35 billion and 7-year T-notes (previous $29 billion) to be auctioned Aug 23-25.

1200 ET Q2 FOF household net worth change, Q1 +$1.49 trillion.

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