UPDATED! Dow Industrial Hits All-Time High

Scroll down for an update to this story:

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Sequester, Week 1: It's grim out there. Airport delays have become intolerable, hundreds of teachers have already been laid off, markets are tumbling -- okay, just kidding. None of this is true.

In fact, the Dow Industrial on Tuesday set a new record, breaking both the closing and intraday peaks reached in 2007.

"The Dow Jones industrial average jumped nearly 100 points early Tuesday, reaching an all-time high, powered by China's strong economic growth targets and a jump in European retail sales," the Associated Press notes.

"Shortly after the opening bell the Dow was trading at 14,222. It's on track to close above its record of 14,164 reached on Oct. 9, 2007. It's up 7.8 percent for the year."

"The Standard & Poor's index rose 11 points to 1,536. It's also within striking distance of its own record of 1,565," the report adds. "The Nasdaq was up 30 points at 3,212.

Heck, maybe we should do this ​every ​year!

Seriously, though, throughout this entire sequester ordeal (and all the hand-wringing and warnings/threats that led up to it), markets have paid zero attention to Washington. Indeed, markets have behaved in recent weeks as if U.S. lawmakers haven't been fighting over the March 1 budget cuts. In short, today's spike in the Dow has little (if anything) to do with sequestration.

Still, were it the reverse, that is, were the markets to tumble today, how much do you want to bet it would be blamed on sequestration?

Markets:

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UPDATE: -- Well look at that:

From the Associated Press:

The Dow closed at an all-time high Tuesday, beating the previous record it set in October 2007, before the financial crisis and Great Recession.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 125.95 points to 14,253.77, an increase of 0.89 percent. The index jumped from the opening bell, climbed as much as 158 points early and peaked at 14,286.

The Dow surpassed its previous record close of 14,164.53 from Oct. 9, 2007.

But who knows? Maybe the effects of sequestration have yet to take a hold of the markets.

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This post has been updated. Featured image screen grab.