The volatility of comprehensive income and its association with market risk

Financial statement preparers claim that the ‘excess’ volatility of comprehensive income (CI) confuses financial statement users. We examine the volatility and risk relevance of CI, relative to net income, for a sample of 92 New Zealand nonfinancial firms for the period 2003–2010. The results show that CI is more volatile than net income. However, the volatility of CI incremental to net income is not related to market risk. Furthermore, the incremental volatility of CI does not modify the pricing of net income. These results hold when asset revaluations are excluded from other CI.