Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Caterpillar (CAT), Chevron (CVX) and Home Depot (HD). Dow stock 52 week lows include General Electric (GE).

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +41 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +28.09 (+0.11%) at 24,774.30.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +25.36%.

There were 19 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Visa (V) +0.91% and McDonald’s (MCD) +0.81%.

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Nike (NKE) -1.10% and Goldman Sachs (GS) -0.69%.

Jobless claims were unchanged at 245k from prior week (est. 240k). Continuing claims rose by 7k to 1.94m in week ended Dec. 16, the highest since mid-November. The four-week average of initial claims increased to 237,750 from the prior week’s 236,000.

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

The national average price of gasoline is up 1.5 cents at $2.447 per gallon.

Earnings Reports.

Nike (NKE) reported earnings on 12/21/17 after the market close of $0.46, beating estimates of $0.437 per share.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Coca Cola (KO)

Coca Cola (KO) is up +10.78% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected -5,000 to 240,000, previous +20,000 to 245,000. Weekly continuing claims expected -32,000 to 1.900 million, previous +43,000 to 1.932 million.

0830 ET Nov wholesale inventories expected +0.3%, Oct -0.5% m/m. Nov retail inventories, Oct -0.1% m/m.

0945 ET Dec Chicago PMI expected -1.9 to 62.0, Nov -2.3 to 63.9.

1100 ET EIA weekly Petroleum Status Report.

1300 ET Treasury auctions $28 billion of 7-year T-notes.