Dow stocks hitting 52-week highs include Cisco (CSCO), Coca Cola (KO), 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 -201 points.

Thursday the Dow closed down -29.79 (-0.08%) at 35,897.64.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +17.29%.

There were 19 Dow stocks up Thursday.

The Dow stock winners Thursday were led by Verizon (VZ) 52.75 (+4.35%), Travelers (TRV) 162.02 (+2.30%) and IBM (IBM) 125.93 (+2.29%).

The Dow stock losers Thursday were led by Apple (AAPL) 172.26 (-3.93%), Microsoft (MSFT) 324.90 (-2.91%) and Salesforce (CRM) 253.12 (-2.66%).

Tech stocks continued to slide in the premarket Friday, one day after they got crushed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been higher earlier in Thursday’s session, closed down 0.08%.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that changing the definition of fully vaccinated against Covid is “certainly on the table.” The White House’s chief medical advisor said there’s no doubt the best protection against infection is two shots of the either Pfizer’s or Moderna’s vaccines and a booster shot. New York City officials said as of Sunday the Covid test positivity rate in the city was 7.8%, up from 3.9% just three days before.

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

The national average price of gasoline is down four-tenths of a cent at $3.312 per gallon.

Earnings Reports

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

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Walgreens (WBA)

Walgreens (WBA) 49.26 (-0.81%) is up +23.52% in 2021.

Financial Calendar

13:00 PM ET U.S. Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count
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13:00 PM ET U.S. Baker Hughes Total Rig Count
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15:30 PM ET CFTC Crude Oil speculative net positions
15:30 PM ET CFTC Gold speculative net positions
15:30 PM ET CFTC Nasdaq 100 speculative net positions
15:30 PM ET CFTC Natural Gas speculative net positions
15:30 PM ET CFTC S&P 500 speculative net positions
15:30 PM ET CFTC Silver speculative net positions
15:30 PM ET CFTC Soybeans speculative net positions
15:30 PM ET CFTC Wheat speculative net positions