Week in review

• DJIA rose a respectable 41.86 points, 0.35% and closed Friday at above 12,000 at 12,00237.
  

• Nasdaq Composite lost 14.99 or 0.64% to finish the week at 2342.30, down 0.64%.
  

• S & P 500 gained a mere 2.98 points, 0.22% and closed yesterday at 1368.60
  

• 10-year Treasury yield fell 0.018 percentage points to finish at 4.788%.
  

• Crude oil dropped $1.75 to $56.82/barrel. I paid $2.44/gallon for regular yesterday, the lowest in quite a while and pretty darn good for California.
  

For the first time in its history the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 12,000 this week. So, is there something magical about 12,000. Probably not. But what makes it significant is that it took so darn long to do it.

When I started my career as a stock broker with Morgan Stanley in January of 1995, the DJIA stood around 4,000. Over the course of the next few years the "thousands" fell pretty quickly. Five thousand came just before my first anniversary, 6,000, 7,000, 8000 and the rest all came pretty regularly. When the Dow reached 11,000 in the fall of 1999, there was no reason to think that 12,000 wouldn't be right around the corner. No one suspected that it would take seven years.

What's next? Well, that's anybody's guess and I doubt we'll ever experience anything like the late 90's again. But as we celebrate 12,000, I'm reminded of those days. They sure were fun.