Dow stocks hitting 52 week highs include Boeing (BA), Chevron (CVX), Dow (DOW), Goldman Sachs (GS) and JPMorgan (JPM). There are no Dow stock 52 week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open up +123 points.

Wednesday the Dow was up +464.28 (+1.46%) at 32,297.02.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +5.52%.

There were 26 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Boeing (BA) 245.34 (+6.39%), Walgreens (WBA) 50.52 (+4.25%) and Goldman Sachs (GS) 342.02 (+3.46%).

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Apple (AAPL) 119.98 (-0.91%), UnitedHealth (UNH) 349.60 (-0.68%) and Intel (INTC) 62.25 (-0.67%).

Unemployment insurance weekly claims in the week ending March 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 712,000, a decrease of 42,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 9,000 from 745,000 to 754,000. The 4-week moving average was 759,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 2,250 from 790,750 to 793,000. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent for the week ending February 27, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the previous week’s revised rate. The previous week’s rate was revised up by 0.1 from 3. to 3.1 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending February 27 was 4,144,000, a decrease of 193,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up 42,000 from 4,295,000 to 4,337,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,355,000, a decrease of 103,500 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 10,500 from 4,448,000 to 4,458,500. The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending February 20 was 20,116,302, an increase of 2,087,376 from the previous week. There were 2,136,741 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.

President Joe Biden is scheduled to deliver a prime-time address Thursday night, to talk about the next phase of the U.S. response to Covid, one year since the World Health Organization declared the spread of the coronavirus a pandemic.

On Friday, Biden plans to sign the $1.9 trillion relief package, which passed the Democratic-held House on Wednesday and Senate on Saturday with no Republican votes. The plan includes a federal unemployment benefits boost, direct payments of up to $1,400 to most Americans, tax credit expansions, and funds for vaccine distribution and state and local governments.

The WHO declared Covid a pandemic 1 year ago today. The past year of the pandemic saw over 118 million global Covid infections and 2.6 million deaths. The U.S. accounted for 24% of the world’s cases and at least 529,267, or about 20%, of the fatalities.

European stocks are higher and Asian markets ended higher.

The national average price of gasoline is up 1.1 cents at $2.826 per gallon.

Earnings Reports

Nike (NKE) reports earnings on 3/18/2021 after the market close.

Walgreens (WBA) reports earnings on 3/31/2021 before the market open.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

UnitedHealth (UNH)

UnitedHealth (UNH) 349.60 (-0.68%) is down -0.31% in 2021.

Financial Calendar

8:30 AM ET Jobless Claims

10:00 AM ET JOLTS

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 10-Yr TIPS Announcement

11:00 AM ET 20-Yr Bond Announcement

11:30 AM ET 4-Week Bill Auction

11:30 AM ET 8-Week Bill Auction

1:00 PM ET 30-Yr Bond Auction

4:30 PM ET Fed Balance Sheet