24/7 Wall St.’s Corporate Power Rankings: Week 27

The 24/7 Wall Street Corporate Power Rankings of the 32 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

Apple moved back to the top of the rankings as problems with the iPhone 4 began to lessen. Companies like P&G and McDonald’s moved up due to the market’s favorable opinion of safe harbor stocks. Goldman’s “victory” over the SEC pushed it up the list. J&J dropped to the last spot as recall problems hurt both its earning power and reputation.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Apple	1 (3)	APPL	Jobs & Co seem to have done a very good job of digging themselves out of the iPhone 4 signal reception problem by using a rubber case to fix the problem.
	Proctor & Gamble	2 (1)	PG	When the market was down P&G with its strong balance sheet, steady earnings, and solid yield emerged as an excellent “run and hide” stock.
	McDonald’s	3 (2)	MCD	McDonald’s angers public by canceling a day of free “smoothie” drinks, its latest offering. Ronald & Co. thought they might run out of cups. In the meantime, another safe haven stock does well.
	IBM	4 (5)	IBM	Intel earnings indicate a strong rebound in spending on corporate computing. Earnings on deck are expected to be good. Big Blue also outperformed the market last week.
	Berkshire Hathaway	5 (7)	BRK	Buffett will take over CNA asbestos risks. The move is gamble that liabilities will be modest. And, BRK gets $2 billion in cash as part of the deal.
	Coca-Cola	6 (4)	KO	Fitch says the risk of exposure to European slowdown to large US consumer companies is very modest. Coke is another big US consumer facing firm that outperformed the market.
	Intel	7 (8)	INTC	Earnings blow the doors off. Investigation of its “monopoly” deal with Dell still casts a shadow.
	Disney	8 (6)	DIS	Consumer sentiment numbers show theme park traffic may slow this summer. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” bombs at the box office.
	Philip Morris	9 (13)	PM	Cigarettes may kill but investors jump into coffin nail stocks when markets are choppy.
	Ford	10 (10)	F	Remarkably high marks in new JD Powers survey makes firm the company to beat in the global car industry.
	Abbott Labs	11 (9)	ABT	News on obesity and AIDS drugs may favor firm long-term.
	Cisco	12 (11)	CSCO	Wall St. worried about margins ahead of earnings. Slowing of 3G expansion in US may cripple top line.
	Oracle	13 (12)	ORCL	More reports that company’s strategic acquisitions are helping Ellison & Co. take business from a weakened SAP.
	Google	14 (15)	GOOG	Wall St upset about earnings, but Barron’s claims the stock is oversold.
	Wal-Mart	15 (14)	WMT	Consumer spending and confidence numbers do not help Wall St. view of Sam Walton’s firm. Bernstein cuts earnings outlook.
	Pfizer	16 (16)	PFE	Will join other big pharma in offering AIDS drugs for generic manufacture for poor nations. May hurt profits, but is the right thing to do.
	Hewlett-Packard	17 (17)	HPQ	New data shows HP is still leader in global PC sales. Additional research shows global PC sales growing at 20%. Daily double.
	FedEx	18 (19)	FDX	BB&T Capital Markets says US air freight has reached record levels. Traffic to Asia continues to be strong.
	American Express	19 (18)	AXP	Market concerned by drop in consumer confidence. But, latest industry data shows defaults are slowing.
	Microsoft	20 (21)	MSFT	Market expects good jump in earnings because of Windows 7 sales but frets about whether Mr. Softy is still doing well in enterprise markets.
	Dow Chemical	21 (20)	DOW	Company makes odd forecast that the new global Olympic sponsorship will bring in $1 billion over ten years. Most people figure it is the companies that pay for the privilege.
	Exxon-Mobil	22 (22)	XOM	Much to relief of shareholders, it looks unlikely that company will make bid for BP. It could, however, get some assets from the UK-based firm at bargain rates.
	Caterpillar	23 (23)	CAT	Good news as rival Komatsu raises earnings estimates, but in US non-residential building forecast to fall 20% in 2010.
	Boeing	24 (26)	BA	Rumors that 787 Dreamliner will be delay until next year seem to be false. Company picks up key Dubai’s Emirates order of 777s worth $7 billion at the Farnborough International Airshow.
	Verizon	25 (25)	VZ	Launch of new Motorola Droid X seems to go well as handset is sold out in a day. Hiccup with iPhone could help bring modest business from AT&T Wireless.
	GE	26 (24)	GE	Market does not think much of earnings. Stock drops more than the DJIA in a rough week.
	Goldman Sachs	27 (30)	GS	Investment bank is consensus winner in $550 million settlement with SEC. The number is about two days of revenue at the firm.
	Home Depot	28 (28)	HD	Housing and consumer confidence still in the doghouse. But, the roofs over those houses are built with Home Depot products.
	JP Morgan	29 (31)	JPM	Banking giant’s numbers stand out as most money center banks post awful results.
	Bank of America	30 (32)	BAC	One of the firms that posted awful numbers. Shares drop 10% from last Tuesday to Friday.
	AT&T	31 (29)	T	iPhone 4 problems are not good for customer retention—or getting new ones. Earnings are expected to be lackluster as most of the growth has been wrung out of the US market.
	Johnson & Johnson	32 (27)	JNJ	Recall woes, plant closings, government investigations, and rising liabilities. Huge errors in handling Tylenol problems will cost the company dearly.

Douglas A. McIntyre