If the yen stays closer to 100 to the dollar, officials said, the profit may disappear.

As these profits disappeared commuter services usually were the first to be affected.

A check casher's profits can disappear fast if it takes in too many bad checks.

By the time the transaction settled, the supposed profit would disappear, as if it had never existed.

But these days, as prices fall or cease to rise, corporate profits have grown more slowly or disappeared entirely.

But profits crashed in 1980 and disappeared in 1981, when the industry posted a loss.

And they say they can't go up more than 25 cents an hour or their profits will disappear.

If, and when, the profit disappears, so does the cricket.

If profits disappeared, this might lead to companies having to increase their national prices.

And profits might even disappear, at least for a few quarters.