It seemed that every morning of last week I asked in Before the Bell whether today would be the day that the Dow Jones Industrial average would close at its all-time high. But to no avail. Well, today isn't over yet and we still have to wait for the a closing record, but an intraday record has already been reached.

Last I checked, around 1 p.m., the Dow Jones industrial average was at 11,754.47, more than four points over and above its 11,750.28 all-time high set on Jan 14, 2000. Today's high was actually 11,755.35. [Update: at 2 p.m., the DJIA had fallen to just below its high at 11,742.23, but was still on track for a closing bell high.]

Since that January 14, 2000 record day, we've seen the market hit by one thing after another, starting with the dot com bubble burst, terrorism, the economic slowdown that ensued and corporate scandals in the form of Enron and the likes.

Oddly enough, as my colleagues Sarah Gilbert and Amey Stone have both pointed out, this is a different world and a different market and while the Dow climbs, the rest of Wall Street is quite a bit more conservative, analyzing each piece of economic data as it comes out, and each earnings report, before making any decisions. Investors are still not sure whether they should cheer or fear certain indicators that may show inflationary pressures are under control -- but perhaps at the price of the economy.