Nasdaq closes above 5,000 for first time since 2000

NEW YORK, March 2 (UPI) -- For the first time since the Dot-com era, the Nasdaq closed above 5,000 on Monday.

The tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite Index closed at 5,008 due mostly to the recent success of prominent stocks like Apple, Microsoft, Intel and Google.

"With February as strong as it was, to see some follow-through here is encouraging," Walter Todd, chief investment officer for Greenwood, South Carolina-based Greenwood Capital, told Bloomberg. "We got some decent data this morning and with numbers out of Europe better than expected and the Chinese central bank cutting rates over the weekend, it's a combination of those things that have us moving higher."

The Nasdaq crossed the 5,000 mark around 10:30 a.m. EST. The last time the index hit that level was March 10, 2000, during the Dot-com bubble, when it closed at 5,048. It had its all-time high peak earlier that day at 5,132.

The first and only other time the Nasdaq hit 5,000 was a day earlier, March 9, 2000. But not long after the Dot-com bubble burst, the Nasdaq hit staggering lows. By October 2002, it had dipped down to 1,108.

It's good news for the Nasdaq, but the index was a little late to the party. The Dow and S&P 500 have been hitting new records for the past year.

The Dow closed at 18,288 and the S&P 500 at 2,117 on Monday.