NEW YORK -- A strong market rally lift the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index to a new all-time high on Tuesday, as investors' confidence and risk appetite kept growing amid improving global economy.

Although some traders were surprised by the premature coming of the Dow's new peak, most of them believed a rosier U.S. and global economic picture and the Fed's massive quantitative easing stoked investors' optimism and made the market ripe for the historical moment.

DOW SETS NEW RECORD HIGH

The Dow Tuesday surged 125.95 to 14,253.77, well above its previous all-time closing high of 14,164.53 set on Oct. 9, 2007. Minutes after the opening bell, the blue-chip index scored a new all-time intraday high at 14286.37, surpassing its previous record of 14198.10 set on Oct. 11, 2007.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 Index soared 14.59 points, or 0.96 percent, to 1,539.79, only 1.6 percent lower than its historical high. The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 42.10 points, or 1.32 percent, to 3,224.13.

Jason A. Weisberg, senior trader at Seaport Securities, told Xinhua that he can guarantee that the Dow will reach 15,000 and higher by the end of this year and the S&P 500 will rose to around 1,580.

"The market has absorbed every piece of negative information it can possibly get thrown at, the sequestration, unemployment numbers, and bad GDP numbers, to name just a few," Weisberg said.

123

　　123