24/7 Wall St.'s Corporate Power Rankings (Week 8)

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

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

Ford was thrashed in the rankings due to the likelihood that February car sales in the US will be extremely weak. Buffett’s company climbed after it released his annual letter and strong financial results. Abbott moved up on news that stents, one of its major products, are effective in fighting strokes. And, Goldman Sachs (GS) stayed near the bottom of the list as investigations into the bank’s role in the Greek debt debacle grew.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Berkshire Hathaway	1 (2)	BRK	Buffett has a big week as he releases his much-anticipated letter to shareholders and Berkshire posts more sold financial results. With the flame-out of the NetJets business Buffett would post extraordinary numbers. At least his family gets to travel in class.
	IBM	2 (9)	IBM	Computer geek & co. comes up with a new way to extend the life of oil fields with partner Shell. IDC research shows IBM as No.1 is global servers sales in the fourth quarter.
	Coca-Cola	3 (6)	KO	Move to buy North American bottling operation is clever, low-cost integration even if the idea came from Pepsi. Market jitters make “flight to quality” a magnet for Coke shares.
	Disney	4 (8)	DIS	Improves terms of $2.25 billion credit agreement which helps balance sheet. Harsh cuts at ABC may hurt program quality, but save money short-term.
	Apple	5 (3)	APPL	Jobs company finds child labor violations at suppliers. Bad PR. And worse for the youngsters. Nintendo launches an iPad killer, which would be OK if the world’s No.1 video game firm was involved. Apple says “no dice” on dividend.
	Ford	6 (1)	F	Ford’s market share improvement in February, much of it due to Toyota’s stumble, will not offset the weak sales month which may continue the rest of the first half and damage Ford’s recovery.
	McDonald’s	7 (5)	MCD	big news is test of McItaly menu. Worrying news for Pizza Hut. Crumbling economy may be good for the low-priced fast food chain, as long as people don’t go back to eating at home.
	Cisco	8 (7)	CSCO	Plans to get into the internet speed race with Google. But, consumers don’t want a new improved online world. Just lower rates. Rising demand for servers should help Cisco’s new business.
	Philip Morris	9 (14)	PM	Deal in Philippines good for business. Rival British Tobacco says price increases holding. Good for everyone in smokes biz.
	Johnson & Johnson	10 (12)	JNJ	Obamacare has a foot in the grave which is good for JNJ pharma and medical device business. New research shows stents as good as surgery for strokes. Hurry for JNJ.
	GE	11 (13)	GE	Conglomerate may sell Garanti banks shares and get out of business it should never have been in. Late days of Olympics not delivering strong numbers for NBC.
	Wal-Mart	12 (10)	WMT	Makes nutty decision to get into movie streaming business. Also goes further “green” by forcing enviro standards on suppliers. It won’t work in China.
	Oracle	13 (9)	ORCL	Sun buyout off to bad start as its server business drops 20% in last quarter of 2009. Bill of goods. If first quarter enterprise software sales are weak, Ellison turns in bad numbers.
	Dow Chemical	14 (19)	DOW	Picks up tax credits in Michigan for energy deal. But Thailand project may be taken off hold by the end of the year.
	Abbott Labs	15 (22)	ABT	News that stents are effective in preventing strokes should cause a rush of sales. New study shows some concern about firm’s Norvir HIV drug. But, it doesn’t matter. Healthcare reform is dead.
	Verizon	16 (18)	VZ	Positive grade for customer loyalty in a business where the term is thrown around without regard to fact. Gets blame for failure or Palm to sell new handsets.
	FedEx	17 (16)	FDX	Two Asia rivals Air China and Cathay team to squeeze Team FDX. Teamsters try to create union for firm’s Canadian employees which would drive up costs.
	Caterpillar	18 (15)	CAT	Jobless claims point to slowing in overall economy likely to hit construction. Will back out of most sales in Iran. Good PR but bad for business.
	Google	19 (11)	GOOG	Every shareholder’s nightmares just came true. EU will begin to look into search monopoly. If concerns move to Justice Department, it’s years and years in the halls of justice.
	Pfizer	20 (17)	PFE	Under investigation for improper promotional tactics for the drug Rapamune. Morgan Stanley makes positive comments on the shares. Dying healthcare reform net positive.
	Intel	21 (24)	INTC	Global server surge is good for sales. RBC analyst starts shares at “outperform”. Research firm Gartner forecasts global chip revenue up 20% this year.
	American Express	22 (20)	AXP	Increase in credit card default in January. New US borrowing standards for consumers can only hurt over time.
	Boeing	23 (17)	BA	United Air finalized plan to buy 25 787s for $4.2 billion. New Pentagon rules for air tanker business should favor the company.
	Proctor & Gamble	24 (21)	PG	Betting the consumer will come back to premium brands is basis for 2010 improvement in numbers. Latest consumer confidence figures undercut that.
	Hewlett-Packard	25 (26)	HPQ	Pick-up in global server business should help earnings as early as this Q. War with Cisco over reselling network products is overblown. HP will just make its own.
	Bank of America	26 (28)	BAC	Sen. Dodd’s consumer banking super robo cop plans won’t make it. B of A can keep squeezing those retail customers. Head of investment bank more than CEO last year, which is as it should be. He had the better year.
	Microsoft	27 (30)	MSFT	Server sales increase good for Microsoft enterprise and Windows sales. Google’s antitrust problems could be more important for Redmond than anything Redmond can do on its own.
	JP Morgan	28 (25)	JPM	CEO warns of concern about double-dip recession and is cautious about the bank’s dividend plans. Legal settlement over claims on Lehman assets is tiny win.
	AT&T	29 (32)	T	Apple iPad may help sales but those sales may not be profitable. AT&T can boast it added more customer in the fourth quarter than archrival Verizon
	Home Depot	30 (27)	HD	Earnings look OK, but home sales and consumer spending are awful. HD is about to find out it did not cut enough costs last year.
	Goldman Sachs	31 (31)	GS	Firm’s trouble with trades to hide Greek debt may extend to damaging investigation. But, if Goldman is blocked from Greek deals, there is always Spain.
	Exxon-Mobil	32 (29)	XOM	Bump from heavy winter weather on oil and gas prices over. Now comes the harsh reality of slowing consumer demand and unemployment. Who can afford home heating and gasoline?

-Douglas A. McIntyre