Dow briefly sprints past 40,000-mark on earnings boost, rate-cut bets

The Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly breached the 40,000-point level for the first time on Thursday, the blue-chip index's fastest 10,000-point climb, powered by strong quarterly results and rising bets of interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.

The index surpassed its previous record high of 39,935.04, hit on Wednesday, and has recovered nearly 40% from its October 2022 lows. At 10:33 a.m. ET, the Dow was up 0.2% at 39,984.95.