Dow stocks hitting 52-week highs include Apple (AAPL), Chevron (CVX), McDonald’s (MCD), Procter & Gamble (PG) and UnitedHealth (UNH). There are no Dow stock 52-week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open down -102 points.

Wednesday the Dow closed up +35.32 (+0.10%) at 35,754.75.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +16.82%.

There were 16 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Apple (AAPL) 15.08 (+2.28%), Disney (DIS) 153.34 (+1.68%) and Merck (MRK) 73.21 (+1.29%).

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Cisco (CSCO) 57.02 (-1.83%), Intel (INTC) 51.75 (-1.56%) and Honeywell (HON) 204.65 (-1.21%).

One day before a key inflation report, the government said Thursday that initial jobless claims dropped to 184,000 last week, much lower than estimates and a new 52-year low level. The previous week’s reading was revised higher by 5,000 to 227,000. On Friday, the November consumer price index is expected to show a year-over-year rise of 6.7%, which would mark the biggest move since June 1982. Federal Reserve officials are expected to react to the burst in inflation by announcing next week that they’ll accelerate pulling back on massive Covid-era bond purchases. That in turn could pave the way for interest rate hikes as soon as the spring of 2022.

U.S. futures are lower, European stocks are lower and Asian markets ended mostly higher.

The national average price of gasoline is down five-tenths of a cent at $3.338 per gallon.

Earnings Reports

Nike (NKE) reports earnings on 12/20/2021 after the market close.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Nike (NKE)

Nike (NKE) 170.25 (-0.61%) is up +20.34% in 2021.

Financial Calendar

08:30 AM ET Continuing Jobless Claims
08:30 AM ET Initial Jobless Claims
08:30 AM ET Jobless Claims 4-Week Avg.
10:00 AM ET Wholesale Inventories
10:00 AM ET Wholesale Trade Sales
10:30 AM ET Natural Gas Storage
11:30 AM ET 4-Week Bill Auction
11:30 AM ET 8-Week Bill Auction
12:00 AM ET WASDE Report
13:00 AM ET 30-Year Bond Auction