March 2, 2015: Markets opened higher on Monday following a report on personal income and spending that was a little short of expectations on both the income and the spending sides. Core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) inflation, excluding food and gasoline, rose 0.1% in January, again below expectations. Both the DJIA and the Nasdaq Composite hit new highs today and the S&P 500 came very close.. Shortly before the closing bell the DJIA traded down 0.38% for the day, the S&P 500 traded down 0.23%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded down 0.69%.

The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Friday was Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) traded up 2.50% at $278.10. The stock’s 52-week range is $194.84 to $278.14, a new 52-week high. Trading volume was about equal to the daily average of around 2.5 million shares. Costco today named Visa and Citigroup as the replacement for American Express in Costco stores beginning in April 2016.

Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC) traded higher by 2.23% at $33.99. The stock’s 52-week range is $24.30 to $37.90. Trading volume was about 30% below the daily average of around 28.6 million shares. The company had no specific news today, but the surging Nasdaq helped the stock along.

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) traded up 2.20% at $30.16. The stock’s 52-week range is $21.27 to $30.31, and the high was posted today. Trading volume was about equal to  the daily average of around 4.8 million shares. The company had no news today, but surely helped boost the Nasdaq composite index to a new all-time high above 5,000.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) traded up 1.71% at $98.78. The stock’s 52-week range is $70.60 to $99.76. Trading volume was about 25% above the daily average of around 3.6 million shares. The company had no specific news today, but was one of the Dow 30 that helped push the DJIA to a new high today.

Of the Dow 30 stocks 25 are set to close higher today and 5 are on track to close lower.

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