Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Chevron (CVX), Verizon (VZ), Exxon Mobil (XOM) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +133 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +284.96 (+1.64%) at 17,694.68.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +1.55%.

There were 29 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Tuesday were led by Nike (NKE) +3.84%, American Express (AXP) +3.51%, JPMorgan (JPM) +2.82% and Merck (MRK) +2.64%.

The Dow stock loser Tuesday was Home Depot (HD) -0.13%.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM +2.82%) and Goldman Sachs (GS +2.17%) both rose over 1% in premarket trading after they passed the Fed’s CCAR stress tests without conditions.

Initial jobless claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 268,000 for the week ended June 25, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 fewer applications received than previously reported. Last week’s increase was in line with economists’ expectations. Claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with a strong jobs market, for 69 consecutive weeks, the longest streak since 1973. The four-week moving average of claims was unchanged at 266,750 last week.

European stocks are mostly higher and Asian markets ended mostly higher.

The national average price of gasoline is down six-tenths of a cent at $2.288 per gallon.

Earnings Reports.

Nike (NKE) reported earnings on 6/28/16 after the market close of $0.49, beating estimates calling for $0.477 per share.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Merck (MRK)

Merck (MRK) is up +8.01%.

Financial Calendar

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected +8,000 to 267,000, previous -18,000 to 259,000. Weekly continuing claims expected +9,000 to 2.151 million, previous -20,000 to 2.142 million.

0830 ET USDA weekly Export Sales.

0945 ET Jun Chicago PMI expected +1.7 to 51.0, May -1.1 to 49.3.

1200 ET USDA Q2 Quarterly Grain Stocks and 2016 U.S. planted acreage.

1330 ET St. Louis Fed President James Bullard speaks at the Society of Business Economists dinner in London.