Nasdaq Composite Index

The Nasdaq Composite covers nearly every stock listed on the Nasdaq, around 3,000 companies, weighted by market value. It started on February 5, 1971 at 100 points, which makes it older than the Nasdaq 100, introduced in 1985.

Two differences from the better-known Nasdaq 100 matter. The Composite also includes banks and insurers, which the Nasdaq 100 excludes by design, and it does not stop at the 100 largest names: alongside the technology giants sit several thousand smaller companies, many of them thinly traded. Because weights follow market value, those small names together account for a fraction of the index — the daily move is decided by the same large technology stocks as in the Nasdaq 100. That is why both indices usually track each other closely without being identical.

So when a market report mentions “the Nasdaq”, it may mean either index, depending on the source. The comparison with the Nasdaq 100 and the S&P 500 is shown below, and the correlation table built from our own price series shows how closely they move together.

The chart shows the US-listed ONEQ fund, which tracks the index. Its share price is not the index level, but the percentage changes match it apart from costs and reinvested dividends. Retail investors in the EU usually cannot buy the fund, because it has no key information document under the PRIIPs regulation.

Data and charts: Nasdaq Composite

2026+16.7 %

1Y+21.1 %

52W

The chart shows daily closing prices, set to the current year by default. The change is +16.7 % since the turn of the year and +21.1 % over twelve months. The last close on record from 25 September 2026 sits at 97 % of the 52-week range.

Data note 1