World markets overnight: Nasdaq closes at record high

The Nasdaq Composite Index cruised to a record closing high, surpassing a 15-year milestone last reached at the height of the dot-com era.

The index rose 20.89 points, or 0.4%, to end at 5056.06, exceeding its all-time closing high of 5048.62 last reached on March 10, 2000.

The gain is the latest for the technology-heavy index, which is up 6.8% this year, surpassing other big market benchmarks.

The latest ascent follows several foiled attempts to surpass the index’s high-water mark in recent months. The Nasdaq rose above 5000 in early March but fell in subsequent weeks amid a cloudy first-quarter earnings season and hiccups in the US economy.

While Wall Street’s other major benchmark indexes, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, have notched dozens of new records in recent years, the Nasdaq has taken much longer to recover from the dot-com bust.

The landscape for technology stocks in the last 15 years is much changed, with stalwarts like Google  and Apple  replacing the hot Internet startups that dominated the Nasdaq in 2000.

Then, 65% of the index’s capitalisation was technology stocks. Today, that weighting has shrunk to 43%. At the same time, the number of companies in the index has fallen dramatically – to 2569 today, down from 4824 in March 2000.

Now, the index’s biggest firms include many highflying stocks in the biotechnology sector.

Also propelling the index have been steady gains in Apple, the stock market’s largest company by market cap. Its shares rose 17% in 2015 and 75% in the past year.

Meanwhile, the Dow rose 20.42 points, or 0.1%, to 18,058.69 and the S&P 500 gained 4.97 points, or 0.2%, to 2112.93.

Commodities and currencies
Oil prices rose to their highest level of the year on expectations the oversupply of crude oil may be shrinking and concerns about violence in the Middle East.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery settled up $US1.58, or 2.8%, to $US57.74 a barrel, the highest settlement since December 12. Brent, the global benchmark, rose $US2.12, or 3.4%, to $US64.85, the highest level since December 9.

Gold prices rose after weaker-than-expected US housing and jobs data encouraged investors to believe the US Federal Reserve would put off raising interest rates for a while longer.

Gold for June delivery was up $US7.40, or 0.6%, to $US1194.30 an ounce.

In currency markets, the US dollar fell against the euro and yen. The dollar weakened 1% against the euro, hovering near its lowest rate since April 6, and 0.4% against the yen.