An Nvidia-led rally is helping to push the Nasdaq Composite toward rarefied territory, with the tech-heavy index near its first record close in 27 months.
The Nasdaq Composite
COMP,
comprised of most of the stocks that trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange and one of the world’s most closely followed benchmarks, was up 346 points, or 2.2%, at 15,927 Thursday morning, near its record close of 16,057.44 set on Nov. 19, 2021.
If the Nasdaq were to finish above that threshold Thursday, it would end a drought of 564 trading days without a record close, according to Dow Jones Market Data. That’s the longest such stretch since a run of 3,801 trading days running from March 2000 to April 2015, following the bursting of the dot-com bubble.
The Nasdaq Composite’s all-time intraday high was set on Nov. 22, 2021, at 16,212.23.
The other two major U.S. stock indexes — the large-cap benchmark S&P 500
SPX
and blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
— have scored a string of records in early 2024.
Nvidia Corp.
NVDA,
shares surged more than 15% after reporting blowout earnings results late Wednesday that exceeded an already high bar for the maker of artificial-intelligence semiconductors. Nvidia shares have rallied nearly 60% so far in 2024 and are up roughly 275% over the last 12 months, contributing to a rally led by a handful of megacap tech stocks seen as likely to benefit most from AI advances.
See: Stock surge could add $200 billion to Nvidia market cap with ‘mammoth growth’ on tap
The Nvidia results were seen invigorating a rally for technology shares around the world, helping to lift Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average
JP:NIK
to its first record close since 1989.
A close in record territory would largely put to rest any lingering doubts about the return of a bull market for the Nasdaq Composite.
The Nasdaq’s long drought after the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000 left many investors particularly wary of declaring a return of the bull market after the index’s most recent slide. After all, the Nasdaq saw three rallies of 40% or more over the course of the bear market that followed the dot-com bust, with none marking the beginning of a lasting bull, analysts at Baird Private Wealth Management had noted previously.
