There are no Dow stocks at 52 week highs.There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open down -86 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +112.73 (+0.64%) at 17,716.05.

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

There were 24 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Pfizer (PFE) +5.01% and Merck (MRK) +2.56%.

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by General Electric (GE) -0.26% and Travelers (TRV) -0.17%.

Verizon Communications (VZ -1.05%) was downgraded to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ at Jeffries.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 267,000 for the week ended April 2, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Economists had forecast claims slipping to 270,000 in the latest week. Jobless claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with healthy labor market conditions, for 57 weeks, the longest stretch since 1973.

European stocks are lower and Asian markets ended mostly higher.

The national average price of gasoline is down five-tenths of a cent at $2.042 per gallon.

Earnings Reports.

JPMorgan (JPM) reports earnings on 4/13/2016 before the market open.

IBM (IBM) reports earnings on 4/18/2016 after the market open.

Goldman Sachs (GS) reports earnings on 4/19/2016 before the market open.

Intel (INTC) reports earnings on 4/19/2016 after the market open.

UnitedHealth (UNH) reports earnings on 4/19/2016 before the market open.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) reports earnings on 4/19/2016 before the market open.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Travelers (TRV)

Travelers (TRV) is up +2.72% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected -6,000 to 270,000, previous +11,000 to 276,000. Weekly continuing claims expected -3,000 to 2.170 million, previous -7,000 to 2.173 million.

0830 ET USDA weekly Export Sales.

1100 ET Treasury announces amount of 3-year T-notes (previous $24 billion), 10-year T-notes (previous $20 billion and 30-year T-bonds (previous $12 billion) to be auctioned Apr 12-14.

1500 ET Feb consumer credit expected +14.9 billion, Jan +$10.538 billion.

1730 ET Fed Chair Yellen takes part in a discussion with former Fed chiefs, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Paul Volker.

2115 ET Kansas City Fed President Esther George speaks about the U.S. economy at an event in York, NE.