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BY VICTORIA CRAIG

You're watching multi-source video news analysis from Newsy. 

Just a matter of time? The Dow Jones Industrial Average is poised to hit its highest level -- and possibly an all time high -- since the 2008 economic collapse. MSNBC explains why that new level has investors rallying.

“We’re only a few — maybe 100 points — away from 12,000, or 13,000 now on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. My how time flies. We’re heading back to a millennium number there.”

The Dow opened Wednesday morning at its highest level in four years...inching it ever so close to that 13,000 mark, before retreating slightly. ABC’s “Good Morning America” explains one of the motivators behind the indices's climb.

“The number of job openings across the country has just hit a nearly three year high. As for the competition, well, an average of four people are now applying for each available job, down from a high of 7 just a few years ago. Wall Street likes those numbers.”

Fox Business’ Lauren Simonetti adds to that — saying investors are growing used to dealing with various economic factors like the European debt crisis happening on the other side of the Atlantic.

“But the other reason is, it’s just a new normal on Wall Street where we have small moves in both directions and we end the day almost where we started — climbing up a little every day and volume is very low.”

So what’s it going to take to actually push the Dow into the new level? One investment strategist has an idea.

“I think traders very much want to see 13,000 if we get no new foul news out of Europe. We could easily watch that go high. What Wall Street wants is to ignite a rally that leaves everybody feeling like they’re getting left behind so the money comes flooding in.”

But is there magic in the 13K figure?
With all the talk about the Dow’s climb, the New York Times Magazine asks why “average” Americans still care about the Dow.

“Rather than being a useful indicator, it’s an anxiety-amplification device. It reflects investors’ own reactions, and often hysterical overreactions, as they progress through the turmoil...The Dow doesn’t adjust for inflation either. Passing 12,000 points, as it did in early 2011, is incorrectly considered the equivalent to that supposedly magical moment in 2006, especially because we were in a bubble then and are coming out of a recession now."

In 2007, the Dow sat at 13,000 points before it dropped 2,000 points in just three weeks -- that was just four months before the US financial crisis drove the Dow .  It bottomed out in March 2009 at around 6500 -- half of where it sits now.