Nasdaq sets new record closing high

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> set an all-time closing high of 5056 on Thursday, taking out the record it set during the dotcom boom of 2000. Following are comments from investors and analysts on the news: URI LANDESMAN, president of Platinum Partners in New York: “It’s pretty amazing. I think it’s a factor of two things – M&A, I think people think there are going to be deals, just like there are in healthcare and biotech. I think it’s going to extend over to other Nasdaq sectors as well. And as I talk to my friend and others who are amazed at the fact that the indices are making new highs in what seems to be a very stretched valuation environment, it’s a lack of alternatives. Basically put it under the mattress or put it in the stock market, because obviously you’re not getting anything in the bank. Fixed income markets aren’t offering anything attractive. I think there’s more risk in the rest of the world right now than there is the United States, and the U.S. market, and Nasdaq in particular, seems to be benefiting right now from not much competition for investors’ dollars.” RICHARD WEISS, senior portfolio manager at American Century Investments, which has $150 billion in assets under management “This does not have the same look and feel as the technology bubble of the late ‘90s. First of all, this is widespread among all growth stocks. It is not dot-com mania. There is no specific sector running amuck. One could make the argument that stocks are in general getting overvalued….We would say equities are at best fairly valued and getting slightly overvalued. “ ROBERT PAVLIK, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth in New York: “The one thing that stands out over the last two-and-a-half years is the strength that it’s (the index) been able to provide to the overall market - an underlying strength with a return of interest in these Nasdaq-type stocks; Microsoft , Amazon , even Oracle to some degree, and some of the older names that had underperformed. You wonder if it’s a late cycle recovery or something more meaningful behind it. I tend to believe it’s finally some economic growth starting to develop here domestically after quite a while of stunted growth because of economic policies that the government has put into place … With the push to its new high, it seems as though to some degree the retail investor might be returning.” TIM GHRISKEY, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York “It’s probably driven by some short covering but it’s exciting. We could be at the top of the range again. This market has been in sort of a channel range since early December and we could certainly see some profit-taking at some point here. Especially heading into May with the old ‘sell in May and go away’ adage, so we could see some selling and come right back down. Right now, it’s pretty exciting for the Nasdaq. It shows the strength in technology and biotechnology and the M&A going on in both those areas, but especially in biotech. It’s certainly exciting to be at an all-time high and it is well deserved. These companies are much better run, much more financially secure than they have ever been. In terms of how the market is acting, despite not good earnings news and not good outlooks, the market just looks right through it. Futures were down this morning and there were buyers right from the start, so clearly there is money to be put into stocks and it is finding its way broadly into stocks, but certainly the Nasdaq names in tech and biotech are really benefiting.” (Reporting by Ashley Lau, Jessica Toonkel and Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)