Dow stocks at 52 week highs include Cisco (CSCO), Chevron (CVX), JPMorgan (JPM), United Technologies (UTX) and Visa (V). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +94 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +98.67 (+0.40%) at 24,922.68.

Year-to-date the Dow is up 0.82%.

There were 20 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by IBM (IBM) +2.75% and Exxon Mobil (XOM) +1.96%.

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Intel (INTC) -3.39% and Verizon (VZ) -2.05%.

Intel (INTC -3.39%) fell nearly 2% in after-hours trading after it said an exploit in its chips allows access to privileged information and a fix will take time to deploy.

In the week ending December 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 250,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 2,000 from 245,000 to 247,000. The 4-week moving average was 241,750, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 500 from 237,750 to 238,250.

Private sector employment increased by 250,000 jobs from November to December according to the December ADP National Employment Report®.

European stocks are higher and Asian markets ended higher.

The national average price of gasoline is up one-tenth of a cent at $2.486 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.

JPMorgan (JPM) reports earnings on 1/12/2018 at an unspecified time.

UnitedHealth (UNH) reports earnings on 1/16/2018 before the market open.

Goldman Sachs (GS) reports earnings on 1/17/2018 at an unspecified time.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Goldman Sachs (GS)

Goldman Sachs (GS) is down -0.58% year-to-date.

Financial Calendar

0730 ET Dec Challenger job cuts, Nov +30.1% y/y.

0815 ET Dec ADP employment change expected +190,000, Nov +190,000.

0830 ET Weekly initial unemployment claims expected -3,000 to 242,000, previous unch at 245,000. Weekly continuing claims expected -18,000 to 1.925 million, previous +7,000 to 1.943 million.

0945 ET Revised Dec Markit services PMI expected +0.1 to 52.5, prelim-Dec -2.1 to 52.4.

1100 ET EIA weekly Petroleum Status Report.

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 Jan 9-11.

1330 ET St. Louis Fed President James Bullard (non-voter) delivers keynote address at an economics convention in Philadelphia.