The Nasdaq Composite was the technology-heavy index whose peak marked the start of the dot-com crash.
The Nasdaq Composite reached an intraday high of 5,132.52 on March 10, 2000. The index had surged during the late-1990s dot-com bubble as investors bought internet and technology companies, often despite limited profits or unproven business models.
After the peak, technology shares fell sharply. The Nasdaq Composite lost about 78 percent of its value by October 2002, when it reached a bear-market low. Many internet companies failed, while established technology firms also experienced major declines in market value.
The index was not exclusively a technology measure, but technology companies made up a particularly influential portion of it during the bubble. The dot-com crash also differed from the 2008 crisis: it centered on equity valuations and business expectations rather than primarily on a banking and mortgage collapse.