A company's market cap represents the net present value of a company's expected future earnings streams.

That prospect discourages investors because stocks typically trade at a multiple of expected earnings; a lower expectation reduces the stock price.

Investors and traders kept a wary eye on I.B.M., which was a big factor in Tuesday's decline after it announced lower expected earnings.

At the market peak in 2000, many large tech companies sold at 60 times or more expected earnings.

Goodwill is calculated as the difference between actual and expected earnings (the same concept as abnormal earnings).

The stock market is captivated these days not by a company's size but by its expected future earnings.

You can, for example, change your expected future earnings to create and compare different retirement options.

He paid $170 million for The Register three years ago, a price then considered a substantial premium over its expected earnings.

Most theoretical models attribute the desire to relocate to the impact of wages and employment on personal expected earnings.

Obvious Limits But this "expected earnings" approach to stock prices has obvious limits.