Matthew Craft

Trading was halted on the New York Stock Exchange in the late morning because of a technical issue. The halt occurred at about 11:30 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday. The exchange said in a statement that it was experiencing a "technical issue" that it was working to resolve as quickly as possible.

The last time the stock market was this high, the Great Recession was turning a month old, and stocks were pointed toward a headlong descent.