Nasdaq Composite in the AI Era · % of Its AI-Era High

## What this measures

The Nasdaq Composite in the AI era: each month's average daily close from December 2022 (the first full month after ChatGPT's release) on, as a percent of the highest monthly average in that period. 100 is the high (September 2026 at the latest calculation). Complete months only, dated the first of the month.

## Why it matters

The AI-driven rally is the most compared-to-the-dot-com market move in a generation. Indexing to the era's own high puts it on the same footing as the dot-com Nasdaq, whose March 2000 peak is the usual reference.

## How to read it

100 means the month set the era's high; below 100 is the distance from it. Read it with equities.nasdaq.dotcom_same_distance, the dot-com Nasdaq the same number of months from its own peak. Latest: 100.0 in September 2026.

## What it does not say

A comparison of paths, not a forecast. Aligning at the high assumes nothing about whether the AI-era high is a peak; if the index keeps rising, the high moves forward and the whole alignment shifts with it. The two eras differ in profits, rates and index makeup: the dot-com Nasdaq was led by companies with little or no earnings.

## Source

Nasdaq Composite index (Nasdaq, Inc.), daily closes via FRED series NASDAQCOM: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/NASDAQCOM. Monthly averages and the alignment are a Palanor calculation (src/lib/fred/composites.ts, run daily by fred-composites). Index data © Nasdaq, Inc., shown under Palanor's display rights for this series; not available as a data file.