The Nasdaq 100 Index is a basket of the 100 largest, most actively traded U.S companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The index includes companies from various industries except for the financial industry, like commercial and investment banks. These non-financial sectors include retail, biotechnology, industrial, technology, health care, and others.

Historical Chart(Log Scale)

Composition

The Nasdaq 100 Index is composed of assets in various sectors, excluding financial services. A large portion of the index covers the technology sector, which accounts for 54% of the index’s weight. The next largest sector is consumer services, represented by companies like restaurant chains, retailers, and travel services. These stocks account for nearly a quarter of the cap weight thanks to the continued growth of retail giant Amazon (AMZN). Rounding out the index is healthcare, industrials, and telecommunications. The diversity of companies included in the Nasdaq 100 helped drive strong returns for the past two decades.

Investors in the Nasdaq 100 will be paying particularly close attention to earnings from the top tech companies。

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook and Tesla now account for almost half the value of the index. Even amid the coronavirus pandemic and soaring unemployment, all six have rallied in 2020, with gains ranging from 16% (Alphabet) to 279% (Tesla).

Differences from NASDAQ Composite index

The NASDAQ-100 is frequently confused with the Nasdaq Composite Index. The latter index (often referred to simply as “The Nasdaq”) includes the stock of every company that is listed on NASDAQ (more than 3,000 altogether) and is quoted more frequently than the NASDAQ-100 in popular media.