Today in business: 5 things you need to know

1. THE DOW HITS AN ALL-TIME HIGH

The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to an all-time high on Tuesday, breaking a record set on October 11, 2007, before the financial crisis hit. Investors shrugged off the stalemate over reducing deficits in Washington and, buoyed by news that China would pump more money into its economy, pushed the stocks of the 30 blue-chip companies in the Dow up nearly 90 points, or 0.74 percent, to 14,216.70. The previous record intraday high was 14,198.10. Since bottoming out in March 2009, the Dow has more than doubled, stunning even many seasoned market pros. "We think this could be the biggest bull market of our careers," says Richard Bernstein, chief executive of Richard Bernstein Advisors. [New York Times]

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2. OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BACKS CELL-PHONE UNLOCKING

The White House on Monday called for allowing cell-phone customers to "unlock" their smartphones and tablets and take them from one wireless carrier to another. The move came in response to an online White House petition that drew more than 100,000 signatures protesting the ban, which makes it a federal crime for consumers to "unlock" newly purchased mobile phones so they can switch carriers. Wireless companies lock phones because they offer them to customers at discounted prices in exchange for long-term contracts, but tech-savvy users have long used computer programs to get around the restriction. Despite the Obama administration's opposition, Congress would probably have to change federal copyright law to reverse the ban. [TIME]

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3. APPLE PLANNING SUMMERTIME IPHONE UPDATES, SAY REPORTS

Apple is reportedly aiming to unveil its iPhone 5S and a lower-cost iPhone alongside iOS 7 in June, with the devices going on sale in July. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says the company is working fast to "avoid repeating the fatal mistake of last year of the delayed iPhone 5 launch, which gave competitors room to grab market share." "Don't expect a huge product upgrade," says Jonny Evans at Computerworld. "This seems set to be an iterative improvement of the product with the same chassis design, but beefed-up with a more powerful processor and higher-resolution camera." [MacRumors, Computerworld]

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4. TWITTER ANNOUNCES END OF TWEETDECK MOBILE APPS

Twitter is killing off its TweetDeck apps for mobile devices. The micro-blogging giant announced on Monday that it would be pulling TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android, and TweetDeck for iPhone apps in early May, and warning users that the apps would stop functioning soon after that. Twitter also plans to end support for TweetDeck on Facebook, focusing instead on an integration with Google's Chrome browser. Twitter acquired TweetDeck in May 2011, and gave both its web- and PC-based TweetDeck application a makeover just last October. [PC Magazine]

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5. HOUSING PRICES CLIMB

U.S. home prices rose in January by 9.7 percent over the same time last year, market watcher CoreLogic reported on Tuesday. That's the biggest year-to-year rise since April 2006. Since the housing market's peak, prices are down by 26.4 percent nationally — 19.9 percent when distressed sales are weeded out — but every state but Delaware and Illinois are up from a year ago. "With these gains, the housing market is poised to enter the spring selling season on sound footing," said Mark Fleming, CoreLogic chief economist, in a statement. [USA Today]