The U.S. dollar hovered close to an 11-year high against a basket of currencies while Asian shares firmed in early trade on Tuesday, with sentiment bolstered by another record day on Wall Street. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was nearly flat, while Japan's Nikkei stock average was up about 0.4 percent after the yen pushed to three-week lows against the greenback. On Wall Street on Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 both posted fresh record closing highs, while the Nasdaq Composite broke 5,000 for the first time in 15 years.

NEW YORK (AP) — For the first time since its dot-com era peak nearly 15 years ago, the Nasdaq composite has closed above 5,000.

NEW YORK (AP) — The last time the Nasdaq was this high, Bill Clinton was president, your Internet connection was probably still dial-up and the iPod, iPhone and iPad didn't exist.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Nasdaq on Monday closed above 5,000 for the first time since the year 2000 dot-com bubble as tech stocks were boosted by deals, while the S&P 500 and Dow indexes hit records after economic data pointed to a slowly accelerating economy.

By Richard Leong NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock prices rallied on Monday, with the Nasdaq composite crossing 5,000 for the first time in 15 years, while the dollar touched an 11-year high on expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates later this year. Wall Street kicked off March on a high note after a stellar February, when the benchmark S&P 500 Index registered its best monthly gain since October 2011. The S&P and Dow Jones industrial average posted record closing highs on Monday. "We are still in a longer-term economic expansion. ...

Key milestones in the history of the Nasdaq composite index: — Feb. 8, 1971: Nasdaq index is created and set at 100 by the National Association of Securities Dealers, an industry self-regulatory group. ...

It's taken 15 years for the Nasdaq composite index to approach the record high of 5,048 it reached back in March 2000, at the height of the tech-stock boom that would later collapse. On Monday the index ...