May 16 (Reuters) - 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.