Which U.S. stock index reached its dot-com-era peak on March 10, 2000?

The Nasdaq Composite reached its dot-com-era peak on March 10, 2000.

The technology-heavy index closed at 5,048.62 that day, after years of enthusiasm for internet companies and other technology shares. Many investors valued businesses according to expected future growth rather than established profits, helping push prices far above traditional measures such as earnings.

After the peak, the bubble deflated. The Nasdaq Composite fell sharply over the following years, while numerous internet companies failed, merged, or lost most of their market value. The decline is commonly called the dot-com crash, although the wider bubble had affected technology and communications businesses before the final peak.

The Nasdaq Composite is not the same as the Nasdaq-100. The Composite includes thousands of Nasdaq-listed common stocks, while the Nasdaq-100 tracks 100 large non-financial companies listed on that exchange. That distinction makes “Nasdaq” an imprecise answer when a question asks for the specific index.