As the panting and sweaty reporters on the cable business channel CNBC reported today, the Dow Jones Industrial Index has reached a new peak of ecstasy, one that it has never felt in its 116-year lifetime.  Stimulated by swelling prices of stocks such as Cisco Systems  (up 2.19%) and Boeing (up 2.06%), Jones ascended to a shuddering high of 14286.37 at 11:16 am, and was able to achieve a second, albeit slightly less intense, peak of 14285.16 only 2 hours later at 1:36 pm, before sighing and falling back to close the hot-and-heavy hours-long session at a level of 14253.77.

Wall Street traders watched Jones’ crescendo with voyeuristic pleasure.  As the decisive moment neared, the floor of the New York Stock Exchange filled with frenzied shouts of “My shares are going higher!  Higher!” and “Oh God! Buy now! Buy now!”  After the peak was reached, smokers poured onto the sidewalk to have a satisfied puff and bask in the glow.

Here are some reactions from other sources:

Jeffrey Kleintop, a market strategist at LPL Financial, suggested to Bloomberg News that “a big part of the rally to all-time highs has been powered by the Fed’s very aggressive stimulus.”  David Herman of The Globe and Mail added, “It worked, but what happens when the Fed withdraws the stimulus?”

The New York Times reported that Richard Bernstein, CEO of money management firm Richard Bernstein Advisors, is confused about why more investors are not buying stocks. “I just don’t understand why people don’t want to play,” he said.

MarketWatch.com published an article titled, “Dow’s Back on Top — But Are You?”

HeraldExtra.com published an article titled, “Dow Surges to Record … and Keeps Going”

Finally, according to Forbes.com, “Seth Setrakian, co-head of … equity trading at First New York Securities, thinks a reversal is coming in the short-term.  The rally is ‘getting tired,’ he says, and he’s positioned accordingly.”

Some say that the index is not the best way to measure the stock market’s ups and downs.  We remind them that there are four other fingers one may employ in the endeavor.

[Correction:  In an earlier version of this story, we stated that we overheard a stock trader whispering to a hedge fund manager, “I like your stocks.  Are you long?”  In stock-market parlance, “being long” means to hold stocks as a long-term investment.  When the couple returned to the floor of the exchange after lunch, we learned that the trader had not in fact said the word “stock” but another similar word.  We apologize for the error.]