BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  There are a number of ways that we might try to measure the extent of uncertainty. One measure is the volatility of firms’ share prices (Graph 5). 4 Another is the dispersion of analysts’ forecasts of firms’ earnings (per share). A third can be constructed by looking at the proportion of news stories that mention uncertainty.
Compared with the prior year, community bank profitability improved somewhat with a ROA of 1.27 percent, up 5 basis points from the same quarter of 2004, and a return on equity (ROE) of 12.33 percent, an improvement of about 50 basis points. On this year-over-year basis, improved asset quality allowed for lower provisions, but margins were tighter.