The Qualcomm Phenomenon

How huge is Qualcomm’s climb this year? The San Diego wireless giant, which fell 4% on Thursday, could collapse nearly in half next week and still set a modern record for the best calendar-year performance by any major stock, according to statistics compiled for The Times by Ned Davis Research. Qualcomm’s eighteenfold gain would obliterate the previous record for a company that began any year with market value of at least $1 billion, according to Ned Davis, which searched its database back to 1984. Among such companies, 1999 was also a record year for the number of stocks that rose in value by 300% or more. Best gainers each year among major stocks:

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Year Company Ticker symbol % gain 1984 Jefferson Pilot JP 61% 1985 Limited LTD 132 1986 Apple Computer AAPL 84 1987 Reynolds Metals RLM 138 1988 Entergy ETR 91 1989 Oracle ORCL 154 1990 Amgen AMGN 142 1991 Amgen AMGN 265 1992 Cisco Systems CSCO 137 1993 EMC EMC 178 1994 Micron Technology MU 135 1995 Northwest Airlines NWAC 91 1996 Dell Computer DELL 198 1997 Dell Computer DELL 216 1998 Amazon.com AMZN 966 1999 Qualcomm QCOM 1,701**

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*Through Tuesday

**Through Thursday

Sources: Ned Davis Research, Times research