Gold Hardly Looks Precious When Compared With Nasdaq 100

Gold appears far less precious these days than shares of Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and their peers among the biggest Nasdaq-listed companies. Comparing the metal’s price with the value of the Nasdaq 100 Index shows as much. The ratio between them closed Wednesday at the lowest level since February 2001, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Wednesday’s reading was down 42% from a high set last March, as a bear market in U.S. stocks ended. Preferring gold to the Nasdaq 100 “looks painful,” J.C. Parets, editor of the All Star Charts blog, wrote Wednesday in a Twitter post with a similar chart.