There are no Dow stocks hitting 52-week highs. Dow stock 52-week lows include Disney (DIS) 80.98 (-0.26%) and Walgreens (WBA) 22.64 (-0.40%).

The Market

Premarket today, the Dow was indicated to be down -79 points.

Wednesday the Dow closed down -198.78 (-0.57%) at 34,443.19.

Year-to-date the Dow is up +3.91%.

Wednesday, (8) Dow stocks were up, (2) were at 52-week lows and none were at 52-week highs.

The Dow stock winners Wednesday were led by Salesforce (CRM) 221.62 (+1.34%), Dow (DOW) 54.89 (+1.29%) and Walmart (WMT) 161.47 (+0.75%).

The Dow stock losers Wednesday were led by Apple (AAPL) 182.91 (-3.58%), Boeing (BA) 217.95 (-2.08%) and Amgen (AMGN) 249.01 (-1.97%).

The VIX closed Wednesday at 14.45 (+3.14%) and the 10 YR at 4.286 (-+0.02%). The VIX is currently at 15.52 (+7.40%). The 10YR is at 4.265 (-0.47%).

Initial jobless claims totaled a seasonally adjusted 216,000 for the week ended Sept. 2, a drop of 13,000 from the previous period and below the Dow Jones estimate for 230,000, the Labor Department reported. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, totaled 1.679 million, down 40,000 and below the FactSet estimate for 1.725 million. A separate report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that unit labor costs, a calculation of hourly compensation minus productivity, increased 2.2% in the second quarter, higher than the 1.9% estimate. Nonfarm productivity, or output per hour, increased 3.5% for the quarter, a 0.2 percentage point downward revision but 0.1 percentage point above the forecast, the BLS said.

Apple (AAPL) shares fell 2.9% after Bloomberg News reported China is planning to extend a ban on iPhone use to state-owned corporations.

McDonald’s (MCD) gained nearly 1% premarket after Wells Fargo upgraded the stock to overweight from equal weight, saying the company “is firing on all cylinders” when it comes to innovation and that it could see upside in the second half of this year.

October West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil contracts touched an intraday $88.08 per barrel Wednesday, the highest price since Nov. 15, 2022, when crude traded at $88.68 a barrel. (A barrel of oil holds 42 gallons). WTI is hiugher by 9.1% so far in 2023. November Brent contracts, the global benchmark, closed at $90.60 a barrel Wednesday and are ahead by 5.5% in 2023. September RBOB gasoline futures (the RBOB stands for reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending) rose 0.80% Wednesday to $2.6014 a gallon, up 5.8% for the year-to-date.

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

The national average price of gasoline is unchanged at $3.803 per gallon.

Earnings Reports

There are no Dow stocks set to report earnings in the near term.

Today’s Featured Dow Stock

McDonald’s (MCD)

McDonald’s (MCD) 275.44 (-1.33%) is up +4.52% in 2023.

Financial Calendar

08:30 AM ET Continuing Jobless Claims, 1,715K, 1,725K
08:30 AM ET Initial Jobless Claims, 235K, 228K
08:30 AM ET Jobless Claims 4-Week Avg., 237.50K
08:30 AM ET Nonfarm Productivity (QoQ) (Q2), 3.7%, -2.1%
08:30 AM ET Unit Labor Costs (QoQ) (Q2), 1.6%, 4.2%
10:00 AM ET FOMC Member Harker Speaks
10:30 AM ET Natural Gas Storage, 32B
11:00 AM ET Crude Oil Inventories, -10.584M
11:00 AM ET EIA Refinery Crude Runs (WoW), -0.173M
11:00 AM ET Crude Oil Imports, -0.586M
11:00 AM ET Cushing Crude Oil Inventories, -1.504M
11:00 AM ET Distillate Fuel Production, -0.043M
11:00 AM ET EIA Weekly Distillates Stocks, 1.235M
11:00 AM ET Gasoline Production, 0.290M
11:00 AM ET Heating Oil Stockpiles, 0.170M
11:00 AM ET EIA Weekly Refinery Utilization Rates (WoW), -1.2%
11:00 AM ET Gasoline Inventories, -0.214M
11:30 AM ET 4-Week Bill Auction, 5.280%
11:30 AM ET 8-Week Bill Auction, 5.290%
11:45 AM ET Fed Goolsbee Speaks
14:00 PM ET Beige Book
15:30 PM ET FOMC Member Williams Speaks
16:30 PM ET Fed’s Balance Sheet, 8,121B
16:30 PM ET Reserve Balances with Federal Reserve Banks, 3.196T
16:55 PM ET FOMC Member Bowman Speaks
19:05 PM ET Fed Logan Speaks