Today, he said, premiums are high but not at historical highs.

"I've never been concerned about historical highs or lows," he said.

Look instead at agricultural products, especially sugar and coffee, he said, which currently trade far below their historical highs.

The study defined collapse as a 90 percent decline from estimated historical highs.

Other commodities are now trading at or near their historical highs, and oil prices are doing the same.

They note that stock prices for many larger companies have rebounded to the point where they are near historical highs.

Ms. Schroeder says some prices of a year or two ago were historical highs that may be difficult to overtake anytime soon.

Corporate profits have reached historical highs.

He went on, "This, and a robust economy, has driven truck and truck engine sales to historical highs."

"Not only German beer producers, but Mexican tortilla makers have see the cost of their main raw material growing quickly to historical highs."

While there has been a sudden upturn in this type of volatility, overall market volatility is still low, compared with historical highs.

In contrast, the traditional energy sector, which includes oil companies and businesses directly engaged in mining, gained only 10,000 jobs last year, well below historical highs.

Catches in the region have declined from historical highs in the 1970s and 1980s due to the departure of foreign fishing vessels following new gillnet regulations.

The various controversies surrounding the statue reportedly increased the number of people attending the annual 4 June vigil in Hong Kong to historical highs.

Democrats said that while total government revenue as a percentage of the nation's economic output is near historical highs, income taxes for most people are low by historical standards.

In 26 of the past 30 months, wages for most of the work force have failed to outpace inflation, even as corporate profits have hit historical highs.

"The fares are at historical highs," said Eric Altschul, vice president for the consulting services group at American Express Travel.

In its statement, Novation noted that "hospitals have the freedom to choose how they purchase supplies," and that it believed that its member satisfaction was "at historical highs."

ALREADY, volatility, as measured by the Chicago Board Options Exchange volatility index, is up sharply, but still well below historical highs.

Given that the amount of space devoted to retailing is at historical highs and still not showing convincing signs of contracting, competition is highly likely to intensify in the coming year.

The city has a legacy of historical highs and lows: it was here that Pancho Villa defeated a stronghold of soldiers (today he is still much feted by the locals).

"The average number of days to maturity of securities held in portfolios is up to historical highs, with fund managers reaching higher along the steep yield curve for better returns," Mr. Frank said.

Yes, the consumer confidence index has slipped for three straight months, but it remains near historical highs, 25 percent higher than in 1995 and about the same as it was a year ago when the bull market was running strong.

Even though economists disagree on how important consumer confidence is and even what the indexes measure, they agree that confidence has been hovering at historical highs for the past few years and that spending has been remarkably strong.

Mr. Nicoski said that a high proportion of his firm's 330 industry groupings, which Piper, Jaffray calls microgroups, have already gone through a period of growth at rates near historical highs and have begun to lose upward momentum or even decline.