Watch out for flying champagne corks.
The Street celebrated as the Dow climbed back from the depths of the recession to hit a new all-time high.
The blue-chip index broke new ground today, closing up 0.9 percent to 14,253.77 — smashing the previous record set in 2007.
The Standard and Poor’s 500 index also surged today, rising 0.96 percent, or 14.59 points, to close at 1,539.79.
The surge spurred hopes that the worst of the economic downturn — the most severe since the Great Depression — may finally be a thing of the past.
“The risk of catastrophe has diminished,” said David Kelly, chief market strategist for JPMorgan’s funds group.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 125.95 points after rising earlier to 14,286.37. The previous record was set Oct. 9, 2007, when the Dow closed at 14,164.53.
One year later, investment bank Lehman Brothers went under and within six months, the Dow had plummeted 54 percent to rock-bottom levels of 6547.05 in March 2009.
While economic dark clouds still loom, including stubbornly high unemployment and Europe’s debt woes, corporations are flush with cash, and earnings are 15 percent higher, on average, than they were before the crisis, experts said.