NASDAQCOM: Daily Nasdaq Composite Index Closing Values from FRED (1971–2026)

The NASDAQCOM series, published daily by the Federal Reserve via FRED, tracks the Nasdaq Composite Index closing value since February 5, 1971 — over 13,800 daily observations covering all common stocks and similar securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market. NASDAQCOM captures the broadest available measure of Nasdaq-listed equity performance, with heavy weighting toward technology, biotechnology, and growth sectors, and serves as the canonical reference for US growth-equity exposure in macro-financial datasets.

Dataset: Nasdaq Composite Index (1971–2026)

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). Chart generated and served by FRED.

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

FRED Direct CSV Access

The underlying data is available from FRED under series code NASDAQCOM:

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=NASDAQCOM

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=NASDAQCOM"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["observation_date"], na_values=".")

print(df.head())
print(df["NASDAQCOM"].describe())

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/fredgraph.csv?id=NASDAQCOM"
df <- read_csv(url, na = ".")

head(df)
summary(df$NASDAQCOM)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.

Methodology

The Nasdaq Composite is a market-capitalization-weighted index of all common stocks and similar securities listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market — over 3,500 issuers as of 2026. Unlike the S&P 500, which is selected by an index committee, the Nasdaq Composite mechanically includes all eligible Nasdaq-listed securities, making it broader in coverage but also more volatile due to the inclusion of smaller and less liquid issuers.

The index was established on February 5, 1971, with a base value of 100. It is calculated continuously during US trading hours and published at close. The FRED series NASDAQCOM mirrors the official Nasdaq closing value with no transformation. Eco3min refreshes NASDAQCOM weekly via an automated pull from the FRED API (Saturday 08:00 UTC).

NASDAQCOM measures price only — dividends are not reinvested into the index. A total-return equivalent (XNDX) is published separately by Nasdaq but is not part of the FRED dataset. For analyses that require total return, the dividend stream must be reconstructed from external sources.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

NASDAQCOM is a closing-price series sourced directly from Nasdaq, Inc. and mirrored by FRED. As a price observation, the series is not subject to revisions — values published once are final. Eco3min refreshes the dataset on a weekly cadence aligned with the FRED API release schedule.

• Release latency. Nasdaq publishes the official closing value at approximately 16:00 ET each US trading day. FRED ingests the data the same day; Eco3min’s weekly pipeline captures the latest closing observations every Saturday at 08:00 UTC.
• Revisions policy. NASDAQCOM is a daily price series and is not revised after publication. Historical values are stable. Any apparent change in older observations reflects an upstream FRED data correction, which is rare.
• Alternative sources. Bloomberg (ticker CCMP Index), Refinitiv/LSEG, and Nasdaq Direct provide the same closing values with intraday granularity and tick-level data not available via FRED. ALFRED preserves the FRED vintage history for reproducibility research.
• Known gaps. The series excludes weekends and US market holidays (New Year’s Day, MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas). The Nasdaq market also closed for unscheduled events on rare occasions (September 11–14, 2001; Hurricane Sandy October 29–30, 2012) — those dates are absent from NASDAQCOM.

Before running historical analyses, confirm the last observation date against the FRED page directly — a stale Eco3min cache can lag by up to seven days during the weekly refresh window.

Common Pitfalls When Using NASDAQCOM

NASDAQCOM is one of the most widely cited US equity benchmarks, but several recurring interpretation errors distort its signal in macro-financial analysis.

1. Confusing price index with total return. NASDAQCOM measures closing price only — dividends are not reinvested. Comparing NASDAQCOM cumulative performance with a total-return index such as the S&P 500 Total Return systematically understates Nasdaq’s effective return. For multi-decade compounding analysis, the total-return equivalent (Nasdaq Composite Total Return, XNDX) is the methodologically correct series.
2. Reading NASDAQCOM as a “tech sector” proxy. The index includes all Nasdaq-listed securities, not just technology issuers — biotechnology, consumer discretionary, financials, and industrial issuers also appear. The technology tilt is a function of mega-cap weight concentration, not of index construction. The Nasdaq-100 (NDX) and sector-specific ETFs provide cleaner technology-only exposure for users seeking that signal.
3. Confusing NASDAQCOM with the Nasdaq-100. NASDAQCOM contains every eligible Nasdaq listing (3,500+ issuers); the Nasdaq-100 is a curated subset of the 100 largest non-financial issuers. The two series diverge meaningfully during small-cap rotations and biotech cycles. Macro narratives built on “Nasdaq” without specifying which index can produce inconsistent backtests and citations.
4. Comparing pre-2000 and post-2015 levels without weighting context. The current concentration profile — top seven issuers above 40% of index weight — has no historical precedent. Drawing inferences about index “valuation” or “breadth” by comparing absolute levels across these regimes ignores a structural change in composition that materially affects index dynamics.

Historical Regimes

1971–1990 — Early expansion. NASDAQCOM grew from 100 to roughly 460 over twenty years, reflecting the slow emergence of computing, semiconductors, and biotechnology as economic forces. The index remained a secondary reference behind the NYSE-listed Dow Jones Industrial Average for most of this period.

1991–March 2000 — Dot-com bubble. NASDAQCOM rose from approximately 460 to 5,048, a near-eleven-fold expansion fueled by internet speculation and capital inflows into unprofitable growth names. The empirical record is assembled in this analysis of private equity value creation multiple expansion bain. Per CAPE ratio data, US equity valuations reached unprecedented levels at the March 10, 2000 peak — one of the most studied valuation extremes in financial history.

2000–2002 — Dot-com crash. NASDAQCOM fell 78% from 5,048 to 1,114 over thirty months — the deepest peak-to-trough drawdown ever recorded by a major US equity index. Many individual constituents lost 90%–99% of their market value. The index did not regain its March 2000 high until April 2015, a fifteen-year recovery period.

2003–2008 — Slow rebuild and credit cycle. NASDAQCOM recovered from 1,114 to roughly 2,800, supported by improving corporate earnings and the integration of internet infrastructure into the broader economy. The 2008 global financial crisis drove a subsequent 54% drawdown to 1,265 in March 2009.

2009–2019 — FAANG era and ZIRP tailwind. NASDAQCOM expanded from 1,265 to approximately 9,000, driven by the rise of Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Netflix as concentrated mega-cap holdings. Persistently low 10-year Treasury yields compressed equity discount rates and supported growth-stock multiples throughout the cycle.

2020–2021 — Pandemic surge. NASDAQCOM nearly doubled from 9,000 to 16,000 in twenty-two months, propelled by stimulus liquidity, work-from-home tailwinds, and the migration of household savings into retail brokerage accounts. The November 2021 peak coincided with extreme valuation readings across growth-equity factors.

2022 — Duration shock. NASDAQCOM fell approximately 33% as the 10-year Treasury yield surged from 1.5% to above 4%. The drawdown magnitude relative to the broader S&P 500 (down ~25%) confirmed the index’s structural sensitivity to real-rate moves — a relationship explored in detail in the Nasdaq drawdown research.

2023–2026 — AI concentration cycle. NASDAQCOM rebounded above its 2021 peak as artificial-intelligence capex narratives lifted mega-cap technology valuations. The top seven constituents now represent more than 40% of total index weight, the highest concentration in NASDAQCOM history. VIX readings remained subdued through most of 2024–2025 despite this concentration, an unusual pairing that diverges from prior late-cycle regimes.

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

NASDAQCOM sits within the broader US equity ecosystem. The series below provide complementary angles — alternative benchmarks, valuation metrics, and volatility indicators — useful for contextualizing Nasdaq-specific moves against the wider macro regime.

Macroeconomic Dataset Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min macro-financial data repository.

Explore the Eco3min Dataset Hub

Sources

• Nasdaq, Inc. — Nasdaq Composite Index official methodology and closing values
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis — FRED series NASDAQCOM

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). NASDAQCOM — Nasdaq Composite Index Daily (1971–2026).<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/nasdaq-composite-index-dataset/