BLOOMBERG U.S. INTERNET INDEX

The Bloomberg U.S. Internet Index is a stock market benchmark for the dot-com contingent. It is owned and operated by Bloomberg L.P., a leading business publisher with scores of products relating to business news, statistics, and analysis. Among the nearly 300 companies tracked by the index are Web retailers of all varieties, Web-based advertising firms, content providers, Internet software vendors, Web portals, networking equipment companies, and other Internet-based service providers. The index weighs companies by their market capitalization, with the minimum capitalization set at $250 million, and includes those companies whose initial public offerings (IPOs) meet or exceed that total. Among the major companies tracked by the index are Yahoo!, AOL, E*TRADE, eBay, Priceline.com, and Amazon.com.

As e-commerce grew in the mid-1990s and the slate of new dot-com startups began turning investors into millionaires, interest grew in the specific tracking of Internet-based companies' stock market performance. Bloomberg began tracking these stocks in its own index on December 31, 1998, at which point the index totaled 100 firms. The index's short history more or less told the story behind the dot-com economy. Skyrocketing more than 250 percent in its first year, it far outpaced the growth of other major benchmarks such as the Standard & Poor's 500. However, the dot-com shakeout and larger tech-market bust in spring of 2000 that sank the NASDAQ index took the Bloomberg U.S. Internet Index with it. By the end of 2000, the index had fallen from its peak of $2.9 trillion to $1.2 trillion. Those investors anxious to see how dot-com mania and panic will sort itself out will doubtless have their eyes affixed to Bloomberg's index.

FURTHER READING:

"Bloomberg.com Financial Markets Commodities News." New York: Bloomberg L.P., 2001. Available from: www.bloomberg.com.

"Charting e-Business." Globaltechnology.com . September 26, 2000. Available from www.globetechnology.com/archive.

Mitchell, Ian. "Have Dotcoms Had Their Day?" Computer Weekly. November 16, 2000.

SEE ALSO: Bloomberg, Michael; Bloomberg L.P.; Volatility