(07-17) 13:27 PDT NEW YORK, (AP) —

The Dow Jones industrial average swept past 14,000 for the first time Tuesday after a relatively tame inflation report gave investors reason to extend an extraordinary Д but perhaps questionable Д Wall Street rally.

The stock market’s best-known indicator crossed 14,000 in the first half-hour of trading but failed to close above that level; it did, however, manage its fourth record close in as many sessions. The Dow rose as high as 14,021.95, having taken just 57 trading days to make the trip from 13,000.

Stocks have risen fairly steadily since the spring amid a continuum of buyout news and evidence that despite higher fuel prices and the ongoing problems in the housing market and mortgage lending industry, consumers are spending and companies remain optimistic about the future. With the Federal Reserve ever vigilant about inflation, any news that prices are rising at a moderate pace has added to the market’s momentum, as it did Tuesday.

The release of mostly upbeat earnings reports helped reassure a market that had worried that a slowing economy and rising energy prices would cut into corporate profits.

But the Dow’s latest accomplishment does raise questions about whether investors are buying more on speculation than fundamentals Д and whether these gains can hold. A week ago, the average tumbled nearly 150 points after disappointing forecasts from Home Depot Inc., Sears Holdings Corp. and homebuilder D.R. Horton Inc., but only two days later, the Dow barreled 283 points higher as investors chose to put a positive spin on a generally lackluster series of retail sales reports.

“One of the things we know about the Dow being only 30 stocks is that it is a bit less representative of the entire market, but it is still a sign that large-cap multinationals continue to drive this market,” said Peter Dunay, an investment strategist with New York-based Leeb Capital Management. “For the moment, the momentum and strength is so good. You can’t fight it.”

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 20.57, or 0.15 percent, to 13,971.55.

Broader stock indicators ended mixed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ended flat, slipping 0.15, or 0.01 percent, to 1,549.37 having set its own record highs in recent sessions. The Nasdaq composite index rose 14.96, or 0.55 percent, to 2,712.29.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by about 3 to 2 on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 1.43 billion shares.

Bonds fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rising to 5.07 percent from 5.04 percent late Monday. The dollar was mixed against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude rose 49 cents to $74.64 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading over $75 per barrel. Oil hasn’t closed above $75 since August.

The short time that it took the Dow to pass this its milestone recalls its ascent during the dot-com boom, especially because it took only 129 days to make the passage from 12,000 to 13,000. In the late 1990s, the Dow took just 24 days to go from 10,000 to 11,000, and 89 days to go from 6,000 to 7,000.

The end of the high-tech boom plus the recession and the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks helped send all the major market indexes into reverse. It took the Dow 7 1/2 years to trek from 11,000 to 12,000, and only last October began setting its first record highs since January 2000. Since then, the Dow has recorded 52 record closes.

The Dow’s run from 13,000 to 14,000 has been led by big-name manufacturers and producers rather than the financial or drug companies that also populate the Dow. Diversified manufacturer 3M Co., construction-equipment maker Caterpillar Inc., aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. and energy company Exxon Mobil Corp. were among the biggest contributors to the Dow’s move, while financial-services company JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Johnson & Johnson were laggards.

The S&P 500 has also surpassed its early 2000 highs, reaching a new closing high last month and last week surpassing its trading high. The Nasdaq, which was inflated by the high-tech boom, is not expected to approach its closing high of 5,048.62 made in 2000 in the foreseeable future.

The move higher Tuesday came as Wall Street sorted through a somewhat mixed inflation reading and profit reports from blue chip names including Coca-Cola Co. and Merrill Lynch & Co.

The gains also follow the Labor Department’s report that inflation at the wholesale level fell in June but heated up more than expected when excluding often volatile food and energy prices. The producer price index slipped 0.2 percent in June but the so-called core figure, which takes out food and energy, rose 0.3 percent. But without an increase in cars and light trucks, however, core inflation would have increased a more moderate 0.1 percent.

Rising food and energy costs have in recent months have unnerved some investors who worried that inflation will deplete the ability of many consumers to keep spending and help prop up the economy.

The flurry of news this week could affirm or undermine the confidence that Wall Street has shown in recent sessions. Eleven of the Dow components report quarterly financial results this week.

One piece of economic news perhaps affecting investor sentiment Tuesday was the Federal Reserve report that industrial production Д output at the nation’s factories, mines and utilities Д rose by 0.5 percent last month after a 0.1 percent drop in May. The gain was in line with expectations and provided evidence that the nation’s factories are ramping up production following sharp cutbacks in the winter.

Among the companies weighing in Tuesday, Coca-Cola saw its second-quarter profit rise 1 percent as sales at the world’s largest beverage maker rose 19 percent. Case volume slipped 2 percent in the company’s key North America market, however. The stock fell 68 cents to $53.17.

Merrill Lynch, the nation’s largest retail brokerage, said stronger investment banking results and fees from stock transactions boosted second-quarter profit 31 percent from a year earlier. Merrill fell $1.19 to $86.20.

In other corporate news, Dutch chemicals company Basell agreed to acquire Lyondell Chemical Co., a U.S. rival, for $12.1 billion in cash. Including debt, the deal’s size totals about $19 billion. Lyondell jumped $6.93, or 17.3 percent, to $47.05.

State Street Corp., which provides financial services to institutional investors, rose $1.48, or 2.1 percent, to $71.87 after raising its fiscal 2007 forecast citing benefits from its recently completed acquisition of Investors Financial Services Corp.

In market action abroad, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.58 percent, Germany’s DAX index fell 0.83 percent, and France’s CAC-40 fell 0.43 percent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.12 percent.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 1.42, or 0.17 percent, to 849.89.

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This story is the fourth in a series examining the increasing use of credit cards by college students.

Every year for the past six years, Representative Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) has introduced a bill designed to prevent students from taking on unmanageable amounts of credit. For six years, she has tried to alert Congress to the dangers of college student debt. And for six years, she has failed.

But this year may be different. With a Democrat majority in Congress and a growing number of college kids piling up debt that could haunt them long after college, credit-card companies are coming under increasing scrutiny, and Slaughter thinks she just might have the critical mass to succeed this time. “This Congress finally cares more about the interests of students than the interests of credit-card companies,” says Slaughter. House Bill Would Restrict Credit

Her bill, the Student Credit Card Protection Act, first introduced in October, 1999, with co-sponsor Representative John Duncan (R-Tenn.) and reintroduced this August, would limit the amount of credit extended to students to 20% of their total income if they have a co-signer, like a parent, or $500 without a co-signer. It would also require creditors to rigorously review a student’s credit history and proof of income before issuing a card. A companion bill, sponsored by Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) and Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) is pending in the Senate.

If they pass this year, these bills would mark a significant step forward in the battle against dangerous credit-card practices and would work to reform an industry that critics argue is in need of supervision. “No industry in America is more deserving of oversight by Congress,” says Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America.

Slaughter’s move is just one example of how Congress is turning up the heat on credit-card companies. Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) held hearings before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs, followed by an extensive examination of credit-card rates and fees, lead by Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.). Any federal regulation setting caps on interest rates, late payments, or access to college students would be a marked change, since there is virtually no regulation now. “Federal regulators have been asleep at the wheel,” says Plunkett.

Of course, even now, this may be nothing more than political sound and fury, signifying nothing. Slaughter and the Democrats may falter in their reform efforts, push for other priorities in Congress, or pass symbolic legislation with no real substance to it. They may settle for congressional hearings that win them positive press and then do nothing, while accepting the plentiful political contributions from card issuers. The top three campaign contributors from the credit-card industry—Citigroup («www.businessweek.com»), JPMorgan Chase («www.businessweek.com»), and Bank of America («www.businessweek.com»)—gave more than $2 million each in the 2006 election cycle, with roughly equal amounts going to Democrats and Republicans. Legislating the No-Fly Zone

Credit-card companies, according to consumer advocates, have operated since the early 1980s in a legislative no-fly zone, created after a series of Supreme Court decisions divested states of their ability to protect consumers by setting caps on interest rates and fees. Now credit-card companies can export high interest rates from the states where they are located into the states where consumers live, even if those states have restrictions on interest rates or late fees.

That’s why if you look on the back of your credit-card statement, you will see that the return address is most likely South Dakota or Delaware—states considered safe harbors for credit-card companies because they have no cap on interest rates or late payments. “This used to been an arena where the states took a lead, and their ability to do that has been wiped out. Congress has not stepped in to fill that void,” explains Tamara Draut, director of the Economic Opportunity Program at Demos, a public policy think tank based in New York.

Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko” keeps getting praise, even though some of it just isn’t trueДlike his suggestion that Cubans get better heath care than we do. In the film Moore takes a group of “gringos” to Communist for treatment.

The hospital they’re taken to appears cleaner and more orderly than many U.S. hospitals, with semi-private rooms, crisp, clean sheets, state-of-the-art equipment and top-notch doctors.

Now I’ve been to hospitals in Cuba, and they don’t look anything like this one. I can only guess that what we’re shown in “Sicko” is reserved for the Communist hierarchy and foreign VIPs.

In two Cuban hospitals I visited, the lack of the most basic materials was pathetic. Hospital personnel were begging me for anything I had that could be used to help the sick. One hospital asked me for dental floss because they’d run out of suture material.

But in “Sicko,” Cuba has it all. One of Moore’s companions needs a specialized $150 inhaler. She walks into a Cuban pharmacy andДvoila!Дshe easily finds the inhaler. In fact, she buys three for about 5 cents each!

Now, it seems very strange that this particular type of inhaler just happens to be within easy reach of the first Cuban pharmacy they walk into. I’ve been to Cuban pharmacies where it’s tough to get aspirin.

Joseph Stalin used to take naпve journalists around to villages to show them how wonderful communist achievements were. It turned out the villages were just cardboard facades.

The truth is that communism didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now. It’s too bad that journalists are just as naпve as ever.

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David Asman is the host of “Forbes on FOX” which airs on the FOX News Channel, Saturdays at 11 a.m. ET.