Dow stocks hitting 52-week highs include Travelers (TRV) 180.19 (+1.70%). There are no Dow stock 52-week lows.

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to open down -127 points.

Wednesday the Dow closed up +518.76 (+1.55%) at 34063.10.

Year-to-date the Dow is down -6.26%.

There were 20 Dow stocks up Wednesday.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Boeing (BA) 188.99 (+5.06%), Nike (NKE) 125.19 (+4.85%) and Salesforce (CRM) 205.57 (+4.81%).

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Walgreens (WBA) 47.38 (-1.64%), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 174.52 (-0.92%) and Merck (MRK) 78.12 (-0.66%).

The 10 YR yield is currently at 2.172%.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter percentage point Wednesday, its first hike since December 2018, as the U.S. central bank looks to tamp down historically high inflation. The Fed’s policymaking arm indicated it sees additional rate increases at its six remaining meetings in 2022. That suggests a consensus funds rate by year-end of 1.9%. It also may start reducing its balance sheet in May, chief Jerome Powell said at a news conference, suggesting the process could have an impact equal to an additional rate hike. Central bankers’ projections for inflation in 2022 rose, while they trimmed their GDP growth expectations to 2.8% from 4%.

Oil prices jumped Thursday on renewed supply concerns related to the Russia-Ukraine war. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose around 4.5% to trade above $99 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude advanced roughly 4.85% to nearly $103 per barrel. The move comes after the International Energy Agency warned that roughly 3 million barrels per day of Russian crude and refined products could be lost from oil markets in April. That would exceed the drop in demand higher oil prices are expected to cause. Earlier in March, WTI and Brent hit 14-year highs near $130 and $139 per barrel, respectively.

U.S. President Joe Biden labeled his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a “war criminal” for Moscow’s assault on Ukraine. It was the first time Biden has publicly referred to the Russian president by that term and, the Kremlin took issue. It said Biden’s rhetoric was “unacceptable and unforgivable,” according to Russian news agency Tass. Ah, too bad!

The Russia-Ukraine war has entered its fourth week and the two sides were not close to reaching an agreement to end the fighting.

Unemployment insurance weekly claims in the week ending March 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 214,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 2,000 from 227,000 to 229,000. The 4-week moving average was 223,000, a decrease of 8,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 500 from 231,250 to 231,750. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.0 percent for the week ending March 5, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 5 was 1,419,000, a decrease of 71,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since February 21, 1970 when it was 1,412,000. The previous week’s level was revised down by 4,000 from 1,494,000 to 1,490,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,463,000, a decrease of 42,500 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 21, 1970 when it was 1,456,750. The previous week’s average was revised down by 1,000 from 1,506,500 to 1,505,500. The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending February 26 was 1,968,544, an increase of 59,516 from the previous week. There were 18,946,509 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2021.

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

The national average price of gasoline is down 1.6 cents at $4.289 per gallon.

Earnings Reports

Nike (NKE) reports earnings on 3/21/2022 after the market close

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

Walmart (WMT)

Walmart (WMT) 145.35 (-0.29%) is up +0.46% in 2022.

Financial Calendar

08:30 AM ET Building Permits (Feb)
08:30 AM ET Building Permits (MoM) (Feb)
08:30 AM ET Continuing Jobless Claims
08:30 AM ET Housing Starts (Feb)
08:30 AM ET Housing Starts (MoM) (Feb)
08:30 AM ET Initial Jobless Claims
08:30 AM ET Jobless Claims 4-Week Avg.
08:30 AM ET Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index (Mar)
08:30 AM ET Philly Fed Business Conditions (Mar)
08:30 AM ET Philly Fed CAPEX Index (Mar)
08:30 AM ET Philly Fed Employment (Mar)
08:30 AM ET Philly Fed New Orders (Mar)
08:30 AM ET Philly Fed Prices Paid (Mar)
09:15 AM ET Capacity Utilization Rate (Feb)
09:15 AM ET Industrial Production (YoY) (Feb)
09:15 AM ET Industrial Production (MoM) (Feb)
09:15 AM ET Manufacturing Production (MoM) (Feb)
10:30 AM ET Natural Gas Storage
11:30 AM ET 4-Week Bill Auction
11:30 AM ET 8-Week Bill Auction