24/7 Wall St.’s Corporate Power Rankings Week 14: Goldman Sachs Bye Week

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 change, 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.

Because of the Goldman Sachs charges by the SEC will effect it and may hit other banks, so 24/7 will wait one to days to post new Power Rankings.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Disney	1 (4)	DIS	Disney CEO Iger written up by The New York Times as one of the greats of his generation of executives. Case is helped by a stock which has doubled to 52-week high and a recovering national advertising market.
	Berkshire Hathaway	2 (3)	BRK	New Harris poll rank Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway at the top of the “reputation” list, whatever that means. Some of Berkshire’s big holdings like Kraft are outperforming DJIA.
	Ford	3 (2)	F	Market has a sneaking suspicion that GM is actually doing well as it pays back $1 billion of government loans. Toyota will offer more incentives even if it drives the industry into the poor house.
	Apple	4 (1)	APPL	Momentum of iPad sales blunted by disappointment over release of new iPhone OS. And, hackers have already broken the code for the operating system to boot.
	McDonald’s	5 (7)	MCD	McDonald’s CEO pay up 29% in 2009 and he deserved it. This year also off strong start. Push into China likely to pay off.
	Coca-Cola	6 (6)	KO	Coca-Cola expands business in UK through buyout of Innocent. Teamsters, a large holder, push to split CEO and Chairman’s jobs, as it if matters.
	Abbott Labs	7 (8)	ABT	Abbott buyout of Facet gets approval, pushing company further into promising biotech space. And rival Boston Scientific in enough trouble to put two divisions on the block.
	IBM	8 (5)	IBM	DOJ is reviewing company’s hiring practices with an eye on antitrust issues. Cisco pushing Big Blue with new and better servers, so it says.
	Cisco	9 (10)	CSCO	Cisco pushes hard into highly lucrative server market and comes within an inch of its 52-week high. Wunderlich Securities initiates cover with a “buy” and $33 price target.
	Philip Morris	10 (12)	PM	Philip Morris at top of “money flow” list grabbing investor dollars last week. Will add Baidu CFO to board, which may help relationships in China were most people already smoke.
	Johnson & Johnson	11 (11)	JNJ	Johnson & Johnson gets edged out of top spot in “reputation” by Buffett. Trouble at rival Boston Scientific a net plus for JNJ medical device and cardio divisions.
	Wal-Mart	12 (9)	WMT	Walmart says it will cut prices on 10,000 items in US stores. Analysts assume this is to bring back tepid same-store sales. But, it could also bomb profit margins.
	Verizon	13 (13)	VZ	Verizon helped by Comcast thrashing of FCC on net neutrality. Now it can keep those geeky file sharing nerds exchanging bandwidth heavy pirated movies off it is network.
	Oracle	14 (14)	ORCL	Cisco push into servers is not good for Ellison’s new Sun Micro division. But, firm picks up “buy” recommendations from Janney Montgomery and Soleil.
	Proctor & Gamble	15 (15)	PG	Big news about P&G has nothing to do with P&G. Former CEO A.G. Lafley joins private equity shop Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. And, P&G’s stock was down for the week.
	Pfizer	16 (18)	PFE	Pfizer draws investor interest as its claims to develop drugs for Asia-based illnesses. Pharma also settles potentially damage suit over death from Neurontin anti-seizure drug.
	Intel	17 (16)	INTC	Intel looks strong on suspicions that its earnings this week will be stronger than expected. But, new PC tablet devices may not take enough share from iPad to help Intel in sector.
	GE	18 (18)	GE	WSJ reports that the firm faces rising competition in its wind turbine business. Market nervous about performance of financial services unit when earnings hit.
	FedEx	19 (19)	FDX	FedEx should benefit from pick up of trade to emerging markets. But, with oil moving back near $90, jet fuel and truck gas will get might expensive.
	Dow Chemical	20 (20)	DOW	Dow Chemical share price helped by perception that rising commodities prices will boost firm’s sales. That is, if it can pass cost of raw materials to customers in finished goods.
	ExxonMobil	21 (22)	XOM	ExxonMobil stands to benefit from higher oil prices as much as anyone. Barclays keeps “overweight” rating on company and earnings should affirm that.
	Microsoft	22 (21)	MSFT	Mr. Softy’s plans to launch its own handset get overshadowed by iPad PR. Firm says it does plan to push search in China now that Google’s leaving. Baidu will probably take Microsoft’s share too.
	JP Morgan	23 (23)	JPM	JPMorgan suffers from question of manipulated earnings raised in WSJ piece. And, Volcker is still trying to get Congress to put regulatory choke hold on banking industry.
	Goldman Sachs	24 (25)	GS	Goldman Sachs mounts brilliant defense of its vicious and aggressive practices during the credit crisis. Does not sell well on main street, but Goldman management is still rich.
	Hewlett-Packard	25 (24)	HPQ	Hewlett-Packard’s growing netbook business is at risk because of iPad. And, Canadian firm WiLan is suing HP and others over patent violations of Bluetooth tech.
	American Express	26 (26)	AXP	American Express is helped by falling credit card delinquency rates. But, drop in consumer credit means people are paying off card debt and cutting their plastic in half.
	Bank of America	27 (29)	BAC	Bank of America moves toward 52-week high on rumors firm may be broken into three pieces, none of them likely to be successful. B of A also says it will push into Japanese corporate banking sector which is already over crowded.
	Google	28 (27)	GOOG	Google investors are over the shock of its China incident. Now they need to worry about eroding US search share. At least Android is doing well, although it does not make any money for Google.
	Caterpillar	29 (28)	CAT	CAT CEO comp down 54% in 2009. Rough road likely to continue although stock is trading up. No evidence of huge construction recovery has moved much beyond China.
	Boeing	30 (30)	BA	Boeing rival EADS may still make bid to knock US company out of the Air Force tanker contract. Aircraft company also says its number of orders is slipping.
	AT&T	31 (31)	T	Comcast victory over FCC should be good for AT&T long term, but its 3G network may be loaded forever and iPad will make it worse. Customer service has yet to bottom.
	Home Depot	32 (32)	HD	Real estate market is dead.

Douglas A. McIntyre [email protected]