Nasdaq’s Large-Cap Generals Follow Troops Into Retreat

The Nasdaq Stock Market’s biggest companies by market value have suffered a reversal of fortune in the past three months. The Nasdaq-100 Index’s ratio to the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has fallen as much as 6.3 percent since Dec. 8, when the gauge peaked at its highest reading since November 2000. “This suggests that some of the large-cap generals are following the weakness in the SMID troops,” or shares of small- and mid-cap companies, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch wrote Tuesday in a report.