Dow Record High!

The big news from Wall Street yesterday was that the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a new record high, 14,253. During intraday trading, it had gone even higher than that, peaking at 14,286. The old record close came back on October 9, 2007, when the Dow closed at 14,164.

Some more facts:

• The Dow reached a new high roughly a year faster than it had following the previous bear market, after the dot-com crash.
• Despite the record, the Dow's price-to-earnings ratio remains about 14 percent lower than its 20-year average.  
• The only Dow stock that has declined in value since the March 9, 2009, low point is Hewlett-Packard.
• For the pessimists among you, it's worth pointing out that the new record doesn't account for inflation. In 2007 dollars, the Dow is at the equivalent of 12,480, or 11 percent off the 2007 record in inflation-adjusted figures.