BUSINESS / COMPANIES and STOCKS

List: Top Ten Performing U.S. Stocks in 2004

Date: 2004

Source: Standard & Poor's 500 Index

Base: All publicly quoted companies in the S&P 500.

Notes: The S&P 500 is a list of 500 US corporations, ranked by market capitalization and owned and maintained by Standard & Poor's. As an index of large-cap US stocks it is often considered to be a bellwether for the US economy. It is market-value weighted, so movements in price of companies whose total market valuation (share price times the number of outstanding shares) is larger will have a greater effect on the index than companies whose market valuation is smaller.