Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Coca Cola(KO), General Electric (GE), McDonald’s (MCD), UnitedHealth (UNH), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Travelers (TRV) and Verizon (VZ).There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open down -3 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +83.55 (+0.47% at 17,716.66.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +1.67%.

There were 20 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Visa (V) +1.86% and Apple (AAPL) +1.75%.

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Boeing (BA) -1.76% and IBM (IBM) -0.62%.

IBM (IBM -0.62%) will reportedly buy Cloud Consulting for about $200 million.

Initial claims for jobless benefits increased by 11,000 to a seasonally adjusted 276,000 in the week ended March 26, the Labor Department said Thursday. The number of claims have increased for three straight weeks to the highest level since the week ended Jan. 30. Still, it was the 56th consecutive week that initial jobless claims remained below 300,000, extending the longest streak below that threshold since 1973. Economists had expected 265,000 new claims last week. Claims for the prior week were unrevised at 265,000.

European stocks are lower and Asian markets ended mostly lower.

The national average price of gasoline is up nine-tenths of a cent at $2.058 per gallon.

Earnings Reports.

There are no Dow stocks set to report earnings in the near term.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Merck (MRK)

Merck (MRK) is up +0.76% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0730 ET Mar Challenger job cuts, Feb +21.8% y/y.

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected unchanged at 265,000, previous +6,000 to 265,000. Weekly continuing claims expected +15,000 to 2.194 million, previous -39,000 to 2.179 million.

0830 ET USDA weekly Export Sales.

0900 ET Mar Milwaukee ISM, Feb +4.86 to 55.22.

0945 ET Mar Chicago PMI expected +3.2 to 50.8, Feb -8.0 to 47.6.

1200 ET USDA Q1 quarterly grain stocks.

1700 ET New York Fed President William Dudley delivers speech at the Virginia Association of Economists annual meeting titled The Role of the Federal Reserve Lessons from the Financial Crisis.