The entire market rose, ending 2003 with its first yearly gain since 1999.
The United States has been seeking an extension of that plan to subsequent years, with yearly gains of about 20 percent in purchases of foreign parts.
But he lent support to the possibility of using one of several less complex risk measures, such as a bar chart of a fund's yearly gains and losses.
Schools with mostly poor students that fail to show adequate yearly gains on test scores in key subjects must take steps to improve.
In cash-balance plans, the yearly gain is based on interest rates.
The fourth-quarter and yearly gains were the result of the addition of $153 million from gains on extinguishing debt as part of the company's financial restructuring, completed in December.
Operating profits were up 13 percent, more than double what they were in 1997 and the best yearly gain since 1985.
With a striking 8.7 percent price jump in the final 11 days of December, stock mutual funds posted a yearly gain of 36 percent in 1991, their best since 1967.
During the 12-month period ended June 30, 1999, the Federal prison population rose 9.9 percent, the largest yearly gain ever reported.
This is the biggest yearly gain for any of the major stock indexes, surpassing a 73.9 percent jump for the Dow industrials in 1915.