41.   Microsoft is one of numerous bellwether stocks that are at record highs relative to what the companies are earning.

42.   Mutual fund companies earn their profits from the fees they charge to manage the assets of their funds.

43.   New Providence calculates price-to-earnings ratios by analyzing what the company earned the past two quarters, plus consensus estimates for the next two quarters,

44.   She was especially interested in why he was unloading Enron stock while the company was earning so much from power deals in California.

45.   Some venture capitalists and executives reckon that the biggest profits will be earned by companies that establish a strong brand by virtue of being first in a market.

46.   Some companies earn employee affection by making people proud to work there.

47.   That is because volatility in those markets means a sharply higher pace of selling and buying, and the brokerage companies earn their fees based on transaction volume.

48.   Tenneco viewed the business as one with limited growth, since the amount the company can earn on its major pipelines is limited by regulators.

49.   That means the yen U.S. companies earn selling their products in Japan buy fewer dollars when they convert their profits into their own currency.

50.   The big companies now earn little on the medicines in the poorest countries because so few people there can afford them.