24/7 Wall St.’s Corporate Power Rankings: Week 28

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

McDonald’s moved into the top slot due to its sterling earnings and the rapid growth of its same-store sales around the world. Microsoft move higher because of its earnings and the remarkable growth of Windows 7.

Johnson & Johnson kept the bottom position as quality control and recall problems with some of its OTC products worsened.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	McDonald’s	1 (3)	MCD	Earnings show why the company outdistances its smaller rivals with strong gains in US, Asia, and Europe.
	Apple	2 (1)	APPL	After good earnings, Wall St. and analysts give more accounts of astonishing sales of the iPhone 4 and iPad.
	Proctor & Gamble	3 (2)	PG	International Olympic Committee will name P&G as sponsor. Cat food recall from animal food division means zip.
	IBM	4 (4)	IBM	General improvement in tech earnings from Mr. Softy and VMWare signal sector is strong. Shares rallied from last Tuesday through Friday.
	Berkshire Hathaway	5 (5)	BRK	GE’s best performing divisions last quarter match up with some Buffett divisions a sign that BRK should keep earnings momentum.
	Coca-Cola	6 (6)	KO	Lawsuit over claims about VitaminWater’s benefits will go forward. Credit Agricole Securities says company’s sales are “stunning” outside Europe.
	Disney	7 (8)	DIS	“Toy Story 3” still among top 5 US movies after all these weeks. Company will buy Playdom media-game-for-social-networks start-up
	Intel	8 (7)	INTC	Mr. Softy earnings show that PC, and chip sales, continue to improve. Case about financial dealings with Dell will continue to be a black eye.
	Philip Morris	9 (9)	PM	Stronger earnings on sales from Asia. Region seems to be adding tobacco sales that has been largely driven out of the US.
	Ford	10 (10)	F	Powerful earnings increase helps allay fears about debt load. But there are no signs that car company is making large gains in critical China market.
	Abbott Labs	11 (9)	ABT	Earnings above Wall St. estimates as stent and biopharma sales shine.
	Cisco	12 (12)	CSCO	Kaufman says router company will handily beat EPS forecasts. AT&T and Verizon earnings show that broadband infrastructure will continue to grow.
	Oracle	13 (13)	ORCL	Gets knocked of Morgan Stanley “best ideas” list, but management says it will quicken growth by doubling M&A budget.
	Google	14 (14)	GOOG	Telecom earnings results show rapid increase in Android-OS deployments. But, UBS upgrades China-based rival Baidu.
	Pfizer	15 (16)	PFE	FDA approves increased dose of company’s Alzheimer’s disease drug Aricep. But PFE says that it has stopped patient tests of experimental drugs for two types of pain at fed’s request.
	Wal-Mart	16 (15)	WMT	Apparel chief quits and Sam’s Club potential members get free tests. Maybe they balance each other out. Company makes brilliant move by putting radio chips into underwear.
	Hewlett-Packard	17 (17)	HPQ	Will use Palm software to battle Google and Apple in smartphone wars? Could not be a worse decision. Still pushing for a solution to success of iPad.
	Microsoft	18 (20)	MSFT	Earnings show that growth of core Windows, Office, and Business franchises are still strong, but online and game units still are wasted investments.
	FedEx	19 (18)	FDX	Rival UPS signals rapid recovery in global air freight industry.
	American Express	20 (19)	AXP	Earnings beat estimates as credit environment improves, but problems of another economic slowdown may mean quarter was “one off”
	Dow Chemical	21 (21)	DOW	Some analysts are concerned whether the sector will get a boost from thestimulus plan that will cause let-down next year. Sales are expected to be good for lower-margin divisions.
	Exxon-Mobil	22 (22)	XOM	Storm in Gulf fails to interrupt operations much. World’s largest oil company gets good PR from plans to have new service to handle big spills.
	Caterpillar	23 (23)	CAT	Earnings outshine. UBP ups price target to $74. And stock moves up 8% for the last week.
	Boeing	24 (24)	BA	Stock improves on order flow from big air show and optimism that company may get Air Force tanker project. Now, it’s earnings time.
	Verizon	25 (25)	VZ	Earnings are OK but not great. Landline business is still losing ground and wireless is growing. But, everyone has a cellphone now, right? Where’s the growth in that?
	GE	26 (26)	GE	Conglomerate helps its prospects by 20% dividend increase after modest earnings. It only helps if earnings do better than “modest”.
	Goldman Sachs	27 (27)	GS	Things seemed so bright a week ago as GS settled with the SEC. But, questions have arisen about whether the bank is withholding documents of other investigations and whether the SEC cut a deal with Goldman because it would benefit from the timing.
	Home Depot	28 (28)	HD	Just when the housing market could not get worse, it does.
	JP Morgan	29 (29)	JPM	Pay czar thinks some bankers made too much during credit crisis, but he is leaving to run BP Gulf escrow, so who cares?
	Bank of America	30 (30)	BAC	Sells more private equity assets and seems to be preparing for the day that commercial and retail banking will rule. Margins will shrink to nothing.
	AT&T	31 (31)	T	Forecast company gives are solid, but wireless growth in slowing in US. And every carrier in the US will sell the iPhone next year—according to rumors.
	Johnson & Johnson	32 (32)	JNJ	Report on Pennsylvania plant worse than expected and Pepcid problems added to a long list.

Douglas A. Mcintyre