Dow stocks hitting 52 week highs include Disney (DIS). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +27 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up 59.87 (+0.20%) at 29,883.79.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +4.71%.

There were 22 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Boeing (BA) 223.85 (+5.09%), Walgreens (WBA) 39.84 (+3.59%) and Disney (DIS) 153.61 (+2.79%).

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Salesforce (CRM) 220.78 (-8.52%), McDonald’s (MCD) 210.86 (-2.44%) and Home Depot (HD) 271.10 (-1.45%).

Unemployment insurance weekly claims in the week ending November 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 712,000, a decrease of 75,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 9,000 from 778,000 to 787,000. The 4-week moving average was 739,500, a decrease of 11,250 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 2,250 from 748,500 to 750,750. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.8 percent for the week ending November 21, a decrease of 0.4 percentage point from the previous week’s revised rate. The previous week’s rate was revised up by 0.1 from 4.1 to 4.2 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 21 was 5,520,000, a decrease of 569,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up 18,000 from 6,071,000 to 6,089,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,194,250, a decrease of 425,500 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 4,500 from 6,615,250 to 6,619,750. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending November 14 was 20,163,477, a decrease of 349,633 from the previous week. There were 1,573,485 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to reconsider and use the $908 billion bipartisan Covid-19 stimulus plan as the basis for relief talks. In a joint statement Wednesday, the Democratic leaders endorsed the more narrow approach. In the past, they sought a bill more than twice as big. McConnell quickly shot down the bipartisan plan after it was released Tuesday. He wants a relief bill of only half the size.

Director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield said Wednesday that about 90% of hospitals in the country are in “hot zones and the red zones” on capacity. He also said he feared that deaths from Covid-19 could reach 450,000 by February. Total U.S. coronavirus fatalities were 273,847 as of Thursday morning.

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

The national average price of gasoline is up five-tenths of a cent at $2.164 per gallon.

Earnings Reports

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

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

3M (MMM)

3M (MMM) 171.85 (+0.78%) is down -2.59% year-to-date. 3M (MMM) YTD low was 114.04 on 3/23/2020. 3M has provided a +50.69% gain off the YTD low.

Financial Calendar

7:30 AM ET Challenger Job-Cut Report

8:30 AM ET Jobless Claims

9:45 AM ET PMI Composite Final

10:00 AM ET ISM Services Index

10:30 AM ET EIA Natural Gas Report

11:00 AM ET 3-Month Bill Announcement

11:00 AM ET 6-Month Bill Announcement

11:00 AM ET 3-Yr Note Announcement

11:00 AM ET 10-Yr Note Announcement

11:00 AM ET 30-Yr Bond Announcement

11:30 AM ET 4-Week Bill Auction

11:30 AM ET 8-Week Bill Auction

4:30 PM ET Fed Balance Sheet

4:30 PM ET Money Supply