Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Caterpillar (CAT), Home Depot (HD), JPMorgan (JPM), 3M (MMM) and Pfizer (PFE). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +9 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +19.97 (+0.09%) at 22,661.64.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +14.67%.

There were 15 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Nike (NKE) +1.19% and Caterpillar (CAT) +0.98%.

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by General Electric (GE) -1.29% and Cisco (CSCO) -1.21%.

Microsoft (MSFT +0.58%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Hold’ at Canaccord Genuity with a price target of $86.

Initial jobless claims fell by 12,000 to 260,000 at the end of September. Economists had forecast claims to total 265,000 in the week ended Sept. 30. The monthly average of claims declined by 9,500 to 268,250. Continuing claims, fell slightly to 1.94 million.

European stocks are mostly lower and Asian markets ended higher.

The national average price of gasoline is down 1.1 cents at $2.523 per gallon.

Earnings Reports.

Nike (NKE) reported earnings on 9/26/17 after the market close of $0.57, beating estimates calling for $0.515 per share.

JPMorgan (JPM) reports earnings on 10/12/2017 before the market open.

Goldman Sachs (GS) reports earnings on 10/17/2017 before the market open.

IBM (IBM) reports earnings on 10/17/2017 before the market open.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) reports earnings on 10/17/2017 before the market open.

UnitedHealth (UNH) reports earnings on 10/17/2017 before the market open.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Chevron (CVX)

Chevron (CVX) is down -7.60% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0730 ET Sep Challenger job cuts, Aug +5.1% y/y.

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected -7,000 to 265,000, previous +12,000 to 272,000. Weekly continuing claims expected +16,000 to 1.950 million, previous -45,000 to 1.934 million.

0830 ET Aug trade balance expected -$42.7 billion, Jul -$43.7 billion.

0830 ET USDA weekly Export Sales.

0910 ET Fed Governor Jerome Powell speaks on Treasury markets and Treasury market practices at an event in New York.

0915 ET San Francisco Fed President John Williams (non-voter) delivers keynote speech at the St. Louis Feds Community Banking in the 21st Century Research and Policy Conference.

1000 ET Aug factory orders expected +1.0%, Jul -3.3% and +0.5% ex transportation.

1000 ET Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker (voter) speaks at the Investing in Americas Workforce conference.

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 Oct 11-12.

1630 ET Kansas City Fed President Esther George (non-voter) speaks at the Investing in Americas Workforce conference.