The Nasdaq composite index hits a record high, 15 years after its dot-com peak.
NEW YORK — Fifteen years, one month and thirteen days.
That’s how long it took the Nasdaq composite index to close above the record it set at the apex of the dot-com bubble.
The Nasdaq rose 20.89 points, or 0.4 percent, to 5,056.06, above the record of 5,048.62 it set on March 10, 2000. In many ways, the crossing of that threshold is purely ceremonial and psychological.
The index, while still weighted with technology and Internet companies, has not been defined by the like of Pets.com, Geocities or WebVan for a decade and a half. And while the index, which tracks 2,500plus stocks, has been steadily climbing since 2011, its ascent isn’t the crazed surge that preceded its last record close.
And the Standard & Poor’s 500, which most fund managers use as a benchmark for the overall stock market, recovered from its dot-com peak in 2007.
As the tech-mania took hold in the late 1990s, investors pushed up the prices of all kinds of Internet-related stocks. Some were never profitable and disappeared. Others, like Priceline.com and Amazon, have survived and prospered.
Apple, a company that was teetering on the edge in 2000, is now the biggest publicly traded company on the planet and makes up 9.7 percent of the Nasdaq. Facebook, which didn’t exist in 2000, now makes up 2.4 percent of the index.
“It’s a major psychological barrier, but in the end, it’s just a number,” said Scott Wren, strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors.
During the dot-com boom, “everybody was buying stocks, the cafeteria people were talking about their stocks,” said Karyn Cavanaugh, a senior market strategist at Voya Investment Management, adding that now, “I don’t feel there’s the same frothiness. If it’s a party, it’s one of the most subdued ones I’ve ever been to.”
There’s another caveat. Taking the effect of inflation into account, the index would have to reach 6,908 to match its highs from 15 years ago.
The Nasdaq’s advance on Thursday was part of a broader move higher by the stock market.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 20.42 points to 18,058.69. The S&P 500 rose 4.97 points to 2,112.93. The S&P 500 is about four points below the record high it set March 2.
The Nasdaq’s close was a side attraction for many investors, who have been focused on companies that have been reporting their quarterly earnings.
3M, General Motors, Procter & Gamble and Caterpillar all reported their earnings on Thursday and all said the strong U.S. dollar hurt them. A strong dollar makes U.S. products more expensive when sold abroad.