Today’s Nasdaq Composite
Today’s NASDAQ Composite Index closed at 16,349.25. Compared to the previous close, the benchmark index rose 192.92 points (1.19%). Year-to-date, the benchmark index is up 8.99%.
today’s nasdaq chart
The Nasdaq Composite Index has historically had a high correlation with the S&P 500. The two indexes even share common components, including Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet.
Like the S&P 500, the Nasdaq typically responds to macroeconomic catalysts such as U.S. gross domestic product growth, corporate earnings, investor sentiment, and geopolitical headlines.
Nasdaq performance
Overall, the Nasdaq has gained 301.52% over the past decade, despite periods of extreme market volatility such as the dot-com bubble and the COVID-19 pandemic. This significantly outpaced the S&P 500 index, which rose 174.89% over the same period.
Nasdaq 100 companies
The Nasdaq 100 Index is a subset of the Nasdaq Composite Index that includes the 100 largest Nasdaq stocks by market capitalization. Below, we list the top and bottom market moving stocks among Nasdaq 100 companies.
Today’s Dow and Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Composite and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are the most popular US stock market benchmarks.
The Nasdaq closed today at 16,349.25 and the Dow closed at 38,852.27. Year-to-date, the Nasdaq is up, returning 8.99%, and the Dow is up, returning 3.02%.
Although both indexes are well-diversified, each has a unique focus that can appeal to different types of investors.
The Dow index is known as a blue-chip stock index. That’s because its 30 constituent companies are typically large companies with industry-leading operations, valuable and well-known brands, and long histories of stability and profitability.
The Nasdaq contains many unproven growth stocks. As a result, the Nasdaq can be more volatile during market downturns, but tends to outperform the Dow when the economy is strong.
Top 10 Nasdaq Stocks
The Nasdaq Composite Index is weighted by market capitalization, meaning that larger, more valuable companies have more influence than smaller, less valuable companies.
The top 10 companies represent a weight of more than 50% in the overall index.
As of December 29, 2023, the top 10 stocks on Nasdaq by weight are: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet Class A (GOOGL), Alphabet Class B (GOOG ), Tesla (TSLA), Meta Platform (META), Broadcom (AVGO), and Costco (COST).
What is Nasdaq?
The NASDAQ Composite Index is an index that tracks the price of all stocks listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market. It is managed by Nasdaq and has over 3,400 components in total.
To be included in the index, a stock must be a common stock of a company listed exclusively on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Real estate investment trusts, American depositary receipts, and limited partnership stocks are eligible, but preferred stocks, exchange-traded funds, and some other securities are not.
Because the Nasdaq Composite Index includes all common stocks listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market, there are no specific index eligibility requirements related to market capitalization, trading volume, or other characteristics. However, there are eligibility requirements for listing on the Nasdaq stock market.
To be eligible for initial listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market, a company must meet at least one of four eligibility requirements. This includes a bid price of $4 or more and an unrestricted number of shares outstanding of 1.1 million or more.
After listing, a company must meet Nasdaq’s continued listing criteria, which includes having a total number of shareholders of 400 or more.
The Nasdaq Composite Index is reconstituted daily with new constituents added or removed based on security information from the previous trading day.
Investing in Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Composite is an index, not an asset, so it cannot be purchased directly. However, there are several options for tracking the performance of the Nasdaq without buying shares in its 3,400+ companies. You can buy index mutual funds and ETFs that are designed to track the Nasdaq Composite.
More advanced traders can also trade Nasdaq derivative contracts such as futures and options. Nasdaq also offers more than 150 of his annuity and index life products that are tied to the Nasdaq index.
Nasdaq ETF
Exchange-traded funds contain a basket of securities that are structured to match the performance of an underlying index, such as the Nasdaq Composite. You can buy shares of the popular Fidelity Nasdaq Composite Index ETF (ONEQ) directly in your brokerage account, just like you would buy stocks.
Some ETFs track a related index called the Nasdaq 100. The Invesco QQQ Trust Series I ETF (QQQ) tracks the Nasdaq 100 Index and has an expense ratio (annual management fee) of just 0.2%.
More aggressive traders can also purchase leveraged Nasdaq ETFs such as ProShares UltraPro QQQ (TQQQ), which offers 3x leverage against the Nasdaq 100. However, investors should understand that leveraged ETFs carry unique risks and can often underperform their targets over the long term. .
What are Nasdaq futures?
Nasdaq futures are derivative contracts tied to the Nasdaq Composite Index. Nasdaq futures offer traders an affordable way to speculate on future price movements on the Nasdaq or hedge long or short positions in Nasdaq index funds.
Each CME E-mini Nasdaq Composite Futures (QCN) contract is priced at 20 times the Nasdaq Composite stock price. The price of CME E-mini Nasdaq 100 futures (NQ) is 20 times that of Nasdaq 100.
These futures contracts will trade on CME Globex from 6:00 PM ET on Sunday to 5:00 PM ET on Friday with a daily maintenance period from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM ET .
Frequently asked questions (FAQ)
As of December 29, 2023, the Nasdaq Composite Index includes over 3,400 stocks. But that number fluctuates as companies gain and lose qualifications. All common stocks listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market are included in the Nasdaq Composite Index.
The intraday high for the Nasdaq Composite was 16,538.86 on March 21, 2024.
