As Michael Fowlkes discussed yesterday, gold prices have been rising strongly over the past few days as fears about a possible recession increased and the U.S. dollar continues to weaken. Gold for February delivery rose in the previous session $9.10 to end at $869.10 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. There have been a handful of notable names that have benefited from these news to trade up to new highs.

Gold has been strong lately, and gold stocks have been following gold's lead. Gold had a very strong day yesterday, with prices breaking through a new record for the second straight day. Josh Bridges, analyst at JP Morgan, anticipates the new year would be a strong one for gold as "it must be remembered that gold is typically a late-stage performer."

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.

I'm looking at my screen and I rub my eyes. Could it be? On the left-hand column I read a headline, "Slowing Economy Spurs Bond Rally." Over there in the side bar is the cute box that shows the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. The chart spikes peppily. "11610.55" is the bright number next to DJIA. "1330.60" reads the S&P 500 -- its five-year high. [Update: at market close, the S&P 500 had hit a brand-new five-year high of 1336.34, with the DJIA at its 2006 high and second-highest close ever, 16669.39.] The world is full of bright, happy green that seems to belie the sad economic data, the slow in advertising, the doom for American autos.

Could it be true?

It seems as if it is. One one side we have the DJIA and the S&P 500. The Dow's all-time high is 11,750 (140 90-ish points away), while the all-time closing high is only 11,722 (that's 111.45 52.61 points away from right now, if you're counting along with me). The S&P is raring to go, as well, creeping ever so slowly up towards its all-time high of 1,552 (although it's still 222 215 points away, 16.6% 16.1%). Strikingly, the current level is higher than the index has been for five-and-a-half years.

And yet, still, economy slumps, slows, dips, weakens. Why are consumers so confident, why are investors eagerly buying up stocks, while the rest of the indicators seem to warn them away? I've searched my brain for a creative answer, and can't discover one. What do you think?