A woman poses for a photograph with the charging bull on Wall Street in New York. The Dow Jones industrial average swept past 12,000 on Wednesday, but closed below that benchmark.

New York ? A wave of enthusiasm just after Wall Street’s opening bell Wednesday carried the Dow Jones industrial average past 12,000 for the first time, and then a ripple of caution pulled the stock market’s best-known barometer back below that milestone.

Nearly 7 1/2 years after it first transversed 11,000, the Dow rose as high as 12,049.51 before retreating, although it did manage its eighth closing record high in two weeks. But that bit of backsliding doesn’t mean trouble on Wall Street – the fact that the markets didn’t barrel higher showed how much saner investors are compared to the spring of 1999, when a Dow inflated by tech-boom fever needed just 24 days to go from 10,000 to 11,000.

Indeed, some analysts counsel against reading too much into the run-up in the blue chip average, which comprises only 30 stocks. The Dow’s breadth is dwarfed by the Standard & Poor’s 500, the index most professional investors use as a benchmark. The S&P 500 has shown strong gains in recent months although it hasn’t kept pace with the Dow.

Al Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards, was among those who were less than impressed with the Dow’s milestone: “12,000 is much ado about nothing.”

But Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at Trusco Capital Management sees 12,000 as a sign investors are growing more confident.

“That suggests that a lot of pessimism about stocks is dissipating. There is a fundamental positive message in this technical development.”

The Dow’s journey from 11,000 was marked by the dot-com bust, recession and the aftermath of the 2001 terror attacks. Its final push past 12,000 Wednesday came after a Labor Department report indicated consumer price pressures are leveling off and third-quarter earnings reports from companies including IBM bolstered investors’ confidence.

Earnings and inflation have been the market’s biggest worries of late. The good news had investors celebrating at the open.

The Dow closed up 42.66, or 0.36 percent, at 11,992.68. Its previous closing high of 11,980.60 was set Monday.