24/7 Wall St.'s Corporate Power Rankings (Week 2)

The 24/7 Wall Street Corporate Power Rankings of the thirty-two most important companies in America are determined be earnings, analyst rankings, important corporate news, trends in each firm’s industry, product introductions, management strength and changes, and credible rumors.

The Corporate Power Rankings will be released at midnight on each Sunday based on performance during the previous week.

Apple got knocked down due to its suits with Nokia (NOK) and alarmingly high expectations about the tablet computer it will probably announce on the 27th. McDonald’s (MCD) was helped by it clever free WiFi program and the fact that breakfast competitor Starbucks raised price.

AT&T dropped to the bottom as more bad news about customer satisfaction moved to the front pages.

Check out the complete rankings after the jump

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Abbott Labs	1 (7)	ABT	Received European regulatory approval for their new ovarian caner diagnostic test.
	JP Morgan	2 (5)	JPM	JPMorgan Chase boosted profits by showing that the investment banking business is not dead—it’s thriving. Consumer credit numbers may have been rough, but JPM can’t control that.
	Apple	3 (1)	APPL	Getting mixed up with Nokia is like going to a gun fight with a knife. The excitement about the tablet computer is over. All anyone wants to know is whether it is the next iPhone. It ain’t.
	FedEx	4 (8)	FDX	Shipper increases rates by 5.9% for many of its freight customers. Says increase in outbound traffic from China a plus. Low oil prices a plus for planes, trains, and automobiles. Trucks, too.
	Ford	5 (2)	F	Fitch’s upgrade of Ford to B- from CCC is a nice shot in the arm. Break-up with Mazda rumor turns out to be false.
	McDonald’s	6 (13)	MCD	Big Mac will benefit from offering free wi-fi. Starbucks price hikes should also send a lot of breakfast traffic its way. It’s nice when the competition helps
	Wal-Mart	7 (4)	WMT	Bentonville dinged by P&G plans to sell it products online. Government numbers on retail sales for December are not awful. Firm closes ten Sam’s Clubs. Rough on morale. Good for earnings.
	Google	8 (3)	GOOG	The communist Chinese are nasty bastards who execute their own citizens with local milk mixed with lethal drugs. Google’s stand against the government does nothing other than hurt shareholders.
	Berkshire Hathaway	9 (6)	BRK	Deal with Swiss Re should be good for Buffett insurance earnings. Warren’s inability to stop Kraft from upping bid for Cadbury will cost him.
	American Express	10 (12)	AXP	American Express will buy Revolution Money, an online payment company. AMEX finally discovers the internet.
	Microsoft	11 (23)	MSFT	Study shows Bing is picking up market share from Yahoo!. Intel earnings are a sign that Windows 7 sales are strong. Xbox posts presentable holiday stats
	Cisco	12 (10)	CSCO	Swiss mobile giant, Swisscom, selects Cisco System’s ASR 9000 router to use in rollout of fiber networks to every household in Switzerland.
	Proctor & Gamble	13 (20)	PG	Idea of selling its products online is genius. Won’t help the general e-commerce business, but Cincinnati hardly cares. B of A ups its rating on stock while trashing Colgate.
	Dow Chemical	14 (14)	DOW	Lawsuit against company over purchase of Rohm & Hass gets thrown out. Barclays upgrades shares to “overweight”.
	GE	15 (11)	GE	Results from JPM send bad signal for GE financial units. NBC fiasco certain to cost earnings are entertainment operation. “30 Rock” loses at Golden Globes.
	Oracle	16 (10)	ORCL	Sun deal still threatened in Russia and China. Wipro deal means little.
	Disney	17 (16)	DIS	New opportunity to stream ESPN via Microsoft’s XBOX gives the mouse company a way to get around cable firms. TV Everywhere may end up working.
	Intel	18 (21)	INTC	The chip company showed that costs cuts and monopolistic practices to shut out rival AMD work, despite the legal sanctions. Intel turned in a spectacular earnings performance.
	Hewlett-Packard	19 (22)	HPQ	Thrashes Dell in new market share numbers. JV with Microsoft is a plus. Intel numbers also indicate PC business is not moribund.
	Exxon-Mobil	20 (15)	XOM	Congress reviewing XTO merger with concerns about controversial drilling techniques. China oil demand not offsetting weakness in recession mauled nations.
	Home Depot	21 (19)	HD	Firm is probably hurt trends that let Fitch to raise estimates on credit card defaults. Morningstar picks the big box house retailer as one of its favorite stocks.
	Caterpillar	22 (25)	CAT	Sharp pick-up in Chinese manufacturing favors CAT. Earnings should be better than expectations as stock hits 16 month high.
	Verizon	23 (18)	VZ	Part of the ugly skirmishing over wireless customers. No choice but to chase AT&T to the bottom of the market, and the bloodshed is beginning.
	Bank of America	24 (17)	BAC	Early bank earnings show that reliance on consumer credit is the kiss of death. Expect B of A to post weak Q4 and dismal guidance for 2010. Nice start for new CEO.
	Philip Morris	25 (24)	PM	Chinese to increase smoking restrictions in seven major cities cities. Big drop in coffin nail sales in nation where 2 trillion cigarettes are sold every year.
	Boeing	26 (32)	BA	787 passes critical milestone. May be Boeing’s best week in months. Argus upgrades shares.
	IBM	27 (26)	IBM	Wall St. is sweating the Q4 figures and guidance for its services business. Market happy with company plans to increase cloud computing business, but with share at nose bleed levels….
	Coca-Cola	28 (29)	KO	Coke kicks off yet another ad campaign this month. Will do nothing to help North American sales. JP Morgan downgrades shares.
	Goldman Sachs	29 (28)	GS	No matter how good earnings are the government and public have the big investment banks’ pomp in crosshairs. Facing new federal tax and chance of bonus tax as well.
	Pfizer	30 (30)	PFE	Congress still looking for more cash from pharma and insurance companies as healthcare bogs down. Anti-smoking drug Chantix suits claim suicide and death issues.
	AT&T	31 (31)	T	Each consumer satisfaction survey and Verizon advertisement damages the public’s opinion of what is left of Ma Bell. Even starting to let Sprint in the back door. Price wars to boot.
	Johnson & Johnson	32 (27)	JNJ	Nothing hurts a corporate reputation more than charges of kickbacks. JNJ will also increase recall of “smelly” OTC drugs. Whatever that means. Bad news, Tylenol on the recall list.

Douglas A. McIntyre