Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Apple (AAPL), American Express (AXP), Boeing (BA), Cisco (CSCO), Goldman Sachs (GS), Home Depot (HD), JPMorgan (JPM), 3M (MMM), Merck (MRK), Procter & Gamble (PG), Travelers (TRV), UnitedHealth (UNH), United Technologies (UTX) and Visa (V). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated up +23 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +303.31 (+1.46%) at 21,115.55.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +6.8%.

There were 28 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by JPMorgan (JPM) +3.29% and American Express (AXP) +2.32%. Also in the top 5 were TRV +2.25%, XOM +2.09% and AAPL +2.09%.

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Intel (INTC) -0.75% and Wal-Mart (WMT) -0.68%.

The fewest Americans in almost 44 years filed applications to collect unemployment benefits last week. Jobless claims fell by 19,000 to 223,000 in the week ended Feb. 25, the fewest since March 1973. The median forecast called for 245,000 applications. The weekly decline, which was the largest this year, shows employers are keeping dismissals at a minimum as demand remains steady and the labor market stays tight. Federal Reserve policy makers will take persistent job growth and falling separations into consideration at their monetary policy meeting later this month. Economists’ estimates for initial jobless claims ranged from 230,000 to 260,000. The figure for the previous week was revised to 242,000 from an initially reported 244,000. The four-week moving average decreased to 234,250, the lowest since April 1973, from 240,500.

McDonald’s (MCD) is revamping delivery worldwide with the launch of a mobile “order and pay” app this year that will accommodate curbside pickup. The new app will allow people to place orders for curbside pickup. And for the fans of the drive-thru windows that have been a hallmark of the restaurant’s business, customers can place an order via the app and then read a code to the drive-thru cashier.

European stocks are higher and Asian markets ended mostly lower.

The national average price of gasoline is up 1.5 cents at $2.315 per gallon.

Earnings Reports.

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

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Chevron (CVX)

Chevron (CVX) is down -3.25% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0730 ET Feb Challenger job cuts, Jan -38.8% y/y.

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected +1,000 to 245,000, previous +6,000 to 244,000. Weekly continuing claims expected unch at 2.060 million, previous -17,000 to 2.060 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 $23 billion) and 30-year T-bonds (previous $15 billion) to be auctioned Mar 7-9.

1900 ET Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester (non-voter) speaks on leadership at the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College in New York.