Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
Following Wednesday’s Fed-inspired gains for U.S. stocks, the Dow is edging closer to a possible milestone: with a gain of 52 points or more today, the blue-chip average would post its highest close since May of 2008.
The major averages are currently on pace for their fourth consecutive week of gains.
Today marks the busiest day of this week for economic releases, beginning with two reports at 8:30am ET – the weekly report on initial jobless claims, and the December durable goods report.
Economists are forecasting a jump of 23,000 in initial claims to 375,000 for the week ending January 21, and a 2.0 percent rise in December durable goods orders, following November’s 3.8 percent advance.
At 10am ET, the National Association of Realtors is expected to report a 1.9% rise in new home sales for December, to an annual rate of 321,000 units.
At the same time, consensus forecasts see the Conference Board’s Index of Leading Economic Indicators rising 0.8 percent for December following the 0.5 percent increase in November.
At 10:30am ET, the Energy Department issues its weekly look at natural gas inventories, and shortly after 1pm ET, we’ll get the results of the Treasury’s auction of $29 billion in 7-year notes.
Investors will watch Europe, as usual, with private sector bondholders returning to the bargaining table in Athens today as they try to work out an agreement to restructure Greece’s debt.
It’s another busy day for corporate earnings, featuring Dow components AT&T (T), 3M (MMM), and Caterpillar (CAT) this morning.
We’ll also hear from AutoNation (AN), Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Lockheed Martin (LMT), Raytheon (RTN), Sherwin-Williams (SHW), Time Warner Cable (TWC), and Zimmer Holdings (ZMH).
After today’s closing bell, quarterly earnings reports are due from Amgen (AMGN), Starbucks (SBUX), Motorola Mobility (MMI), and Chubb (CB), among others.
Netflix (NFLX) leads our list of stocks to watch, jumping in after-hours trading as revenue exceeded analyst estimates and the company added more than 600,000 new U.S. customers during its fourth quarter.
Chipmaker LSI Logic (LSI) saw a 9 percent jump in after-hours trading as its fourth quarter numbers exceeded analyst forecasts, and it also gave an upbeat assessment of the current quarter.
SanDisk (SNDK) fell 4 percent in after-hours trading despite beat consensus estimates with its fourth quarter earnings, a drop analysts attribute to a drop in profit margins.
We’ll watch shares of Ball Corp.(BLL) this morning, as the packaging company boosts its quarterly dividend by 43 percent and authorizes a new 30 million share repurchase program.
Varian Medical (VAR) may be under pressure today, falling 4% after-hours on a drop in profit margins, even though its fourth quarter profits beat analyst estimates.
Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) makes our watch list as well, reporting fourth quarter profit of $1.36 per share, eight cents above estimates, with revenues essentially in line with forecasts.
Symantec (SYMC) beat analyst forecasts by one cent, reporting fourth quarter profit of 42 cents per share, although it did say its revenues are being hurt by a drop in PC sales.
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