Besides some regulatory differences between the two exchanges, the main difference is that the NYSE requires an intermediary trading dealer between buyers and sellers of listed companies’ stocks, while the Nasdaq allows direct transactions between buyers and sellers through an auction system.Comcast Corporation is a telecommunications conglomerate. Following its acquisition of BG Group in 2016, management launched a strategic shift toward natural gas, where it sees greater long-term demand growth versus oil. Life expectancies are increasing, but it will require significant medical support to care for a growing aging population. Here are the 10 Nasdaq Financial-100 stocks that have performed the best during 2019 through Dec. 26:Here’s a breakdown of total returns (with dividends reinvested) for 2019 through Dec. 26 and also returns for 2018 and longer periods:Here are the 10 Nasdaq-100 stocks that have performed best during 2019 through Dec. 26:Here are the 10 best-performing Nasdaq stocks during 2019 through Dec. 26:Going back to the full index, the best performers of 2019 are smaller companies, mostly in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.Apple reported June-quarter revenue of $59.7 billion, up 11% and well ahead of Wall Street’s $52.1 billion estimate.You can click on the tickers for more about each company.The Nasdaq Composite Index hit another milestone Dec. 26, passing 9,000 points for the first time. Nvidia now also produces chips for supercomputers, especially powering artificial intelligence and scientific research applications.To give you a quick overview of the largest companies in the Nasdaq Composite index in 2020, here is a synthesizing image regrouping the information of the top 10.

It regroups multiple subsidiaries, including Avago Technologies, LSI, Broadcom Corporation, Brocade, and CA Technologies, which are industry leaders in their field.Amgen Inc. is a multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical company. Micron partnered with Intel (see below) to create IM Flash technologies and to produce NAND flash memory.Broadcom Inc. is a producer of semiconductors and infrastructure software solutions for data center, networking, software, broadband, wireless, and storage and industrial markets. Starbucks has diversified in venues proposing alcoholic beverages in “Starbucks Evenings” locations, and coffee, ice-cream, and bottled drinks sold in grocery stores under the Starbucks brand.Micron Technology, Inc., also known as Micron, is a semiconductor company, specialized in computer memory and computer data storage. The "death of retail" may be grossly exaggerated, at least when it comes to Wal-Mart.Citigroup was one of the hardest-hit banks during the subprime crisis and Great Recession, with its significant exposure to bad mortgages -- both directly through its lending and through its investment in collateralized debt obligations -- which led to substantial losses, and eventually required federal government intervention to keep the bank from failing. The Nasdaq 100 company weights are listed from largest to … P&G has increased its dividend annually for 61 straight years.With expectations that the company will file for approval of five new molecules in 2018, Novartis's R&D investments seem to be paying off.More than 26% of humanity regularly uses Facebook. Even after 130 years of success, the company's future still looks bright.Even with its massive size, Visa still has strong growth prospects. One of the leaders in the US and the world, Comcast operates in broadcasting and cable television, pay-TV, cable TV, home Internet service, and home telephone service. It serves a range of hot and cold drinks, coffees, teas, fresh juices, and other beverages together with a selection of snacks, pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and drinkware. It develops and commercializes wireless telecommunications products and services, with subsidiaries specializing in certain areas of operations: Qualcomm CDMA Technologies sells Qualcomm’s products and services, Qualcomm Technology Licensing manages the patent licensing business, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. conducts Qualcomm’s R&D activities.Alphabet Inc. is a multinational technology conglomerate, created from the corporate restructuring of Google, which is now its subsidiary together with several other services. Returns as of 07/31/2020.In 1968, it would formally change its name -- and the name of the cards issued on its network -- to Visa, but it would remain privately held until finally going public in March 2008. The company has also made reducing debt -- which ballooned to over $95 billion at the peak -- and expenses a priority, as well as taking steps to increase the return on its investments.Like almost every other tech company that's been successful for many years, Oracle has spent decades out-innovating (or sometimes acquiring) its disruptors. Electronic payments are only a small fraction of global transactions, but that's quickly changing as mobile computing and the global middle class converge.