Stock rally rolls on as Nasdaq crosses 4,000

The stock market rally rolled on Monday, with the Nasdaq composite index crossing 4,000 for the first time since 2000.

Though it remains far below its all-time high, the technology-laden Nasdaq is up more than 32% this year, making it one of the best-performing market indexes of 2013.

Nasdaq rallied strongly Monday morning, topping 4,007 before sagging to just below 4,000.

Nasdaq has been propelled by many of the same forces that drove the Dow Jones industrial average above 16,000 last week: solid corporate profits, low interest rates and the Federal Reserve’s economic-stimulus campaign.

Nasdaq also has benefited from investors’ renewed infatuation with tech stocks. Though Apple Inc. is far below its peak of a year ago, others such as Google Inc. and Amazon.com have seemed unstoppable lately.

Still, Nasdaq is nowhere near its previous high.

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The index peaked just above 5,000 in March 2000, an emphatic punctuation mark that capped the late-1990s dot-com frenzy.

Hitting 5,000 also reflected investors’ love affair both with large tech stocks, such as Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc.

Those one-time investor darlings have never regained their earlier status.

Intel topped just shy of $75 in mid-2000. Cisco hit $80 in March 2000.

Both trade around $24 today.

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Follow Walter Hamilton on Twitter @LATwalter