The FASB requires companies to report comprehensive income, either in a separate financial statement (as Dow Chemical Company does, shown in Exhibit 2.3) or as part of the stockholders’ equity statement. The definition of comprehensive income given earlier relates it to the change in equity during a period, but it is also described as the change in wealth during a period.Wealth can increase not only from business operations but also from changes in market values that are not related to operations.The goal of the requirement to report comprehensive income is to have a net income with results of business operations and a separate comprehensive income with results of the market’s impact on the values of assets and liabilities.Three examples of items affecting comprehensive income are (1) foreign currency translation adjustments, (2) unrealized gains and losses on available-for-sale securities, and (3) deferred gains and
losses on derivative financial instruments.