Dow stocks hitting 52 week highs include Caterpillar (CAT), Dow (DOW), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +145 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +437.80 (+1.44%) at 30,829.40. Guess the market liked the disturbance at the Capital.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +0.73%.

There were 23 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Caterpillar (CAT) 193.86 (+5.57%), Goldman Sachs (GS) 285.55 (+5.40%) and Dow (DOW) 58.43 (+4.71%).

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Apple (AAPL) 126.60 (-3.37%), Coca Cola (KO) 50.52 (-3.18%) and Microsoft (MSFT) 212.25 (-2.59%).

Congress early Thursday confirmed the Electoral College vote for Biden, a day after Trump supporters breached the Capitol in a chaotic effort to avoid the formal recognition that the president lost the election. Shortly after the confirmation, White House spokesman Dan Scavino tweeted Trump’s statement, which promised “an orderly transition on January 20th,” the day of Biden’s inauguration, but also perpetuated the baseless and demented claim that he actually won.

During the Capitol siege yesterday, Democrat Jon Ossoff was projected as the winner of the second of two Senate runoff elections Tuesday in Georgia. The defeat of Republican David Perdue, whose Senate term expired Sunday, coupled with Democrat Raphael Warnock’s projected victory over Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, splits the 100 Senate right down the middle. However, Democrats take over the majority as Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote. After Biden’s inauguration, Democrats will control the Senate, House and the White House.

Many voices are calling on Vice President Mike Pence to “seriously consider” invoking the 25th Amendment of the Constitution to remove Trump from office.

Unemployment insurance weekly claims in the week ending January 2, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 787,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 3,000 from 787,000 to 790,000. The 4-week moving average was 818,750, a decrease of 18,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 750 from 836,750 to 837,500. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.5 percent for the week ending December 26, unchanged from the previous week’s revised rate. The previous week’s rate was revised down by 0.1 from 3.6 to 3.5 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 26 was 5,072,000, a decrease of 126,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 21,000 from 5,219,000 to 5,198,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,274,750, a decrease of 177,250 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 5,250 from 5,457,250 to 5,452,000. The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending December 19 was 19,176,857, a decrease of 419,228 from the previous week. There were 1,803,796 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.

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

The national average price of gasoline is up 1.7 cents at $2.289 per gallon.

Earnings Reports

Walgreens (WBA) will report earnings on 1/7/2021 before the market open.

JPMorgan (JPM) will report earnings on 1/15/2021 before the market open.

Goldman Sachs (GS) will report earnings on 1/19/2021 before the market open.

Procter & Gamble (PG) will report earnings on 1/20/2021 before the market open.

UnitedHealth (UNH) will report earnings on 1/20/2021 before the market open.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Honeywell (HON)

Honeywell (HON) 212.26 (+1.82%) is down -0.21% in 2021.

Financial Calendar

7:30 AM ET Challenger Job-Cut Report

8:30 AM ET International Trade in Goods and Services

8:30 AM ET Jobless Claims

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