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.
| Company | Rank (last week) | Symbol | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Proctor & Gamble | 1 (4) | PG | Company said it will come out swinging to gain back consumer market share. Market likes dividend and support of cash position. |
| McDonald’s | 2 (3) | MCD | McDonald’s pushes to 52-week high on strong sales, history of buybacks, and new fundraising in China–the first by a foreign company. | |
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Coca-Cola | 3 (1) | KO | Stock has good week based on dividend. |
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Apple | 4 (5) | APPL | Concerns about success of rival Android may be overblown. Sales of iPad and iPhone still surging as Jobs & Co. push into China. |
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Disney | 5 (2) | DIS | Market is concerned that consumer confidence drop and joblessness could hurt theme parks for months to come. |
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Berkshire Hathaway | 6 (6) | BRK | Company filings of Q2 holdings show movement to safer or “undervalued” stocks. Could position Buffett for good second half. |
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Ford | 7 (8) | F | Early numbers on domestic cars sales are strong. As comeback auto company of the year, Ford should benefit. |
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Abbott Labs | 8 (10) | ABT | Company appears on more “growth, but safe harbor” lists. Should keep stock up for next few weeks. |
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IBM | 9 (7) | IBM | H-P results should encourage Big Blue shareholders that enterprise IT spending is still strong. |
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Intel | 10 (9) | INTC | Gets points for diversifying into rapidly growing online security market, but may have paid too much for McAfee. |
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Philip Morris | 11 (11) | PM | High dividend and balance sheet strength cause stock to thrash the DJIA for last week. |
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Cisco | 12 (12) | CSCO | Cisco should benefit from increasing roll-out of IP TV. Market encouraged by 4G expansion opportunities. |
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Pfizer | 13 (15) | PFE | Dividend yield is now up to 4.5%, which has to make company a desirable investment for the yield crowd. |
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14 (14) | GOOG | Google reaches 6th anniversary as public company. Some bemoan its recent growth, but the run has been impressive and there is a case to be made that it is not over. Android anyone? | |
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Oracle | 15 (13) | ORCL | Competitor salesforce.com appears to be taking market share. Some results indicate Sun deal may be faltering. |
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Microsoft | 16 (16) | MSFT | Intel deal for McAfee may stir Mr Softy from big M&A sleep. Deal for Symantec would make sense. |
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Exxon-Mobil | 17 (17) | XOM | Energy stocks drop on fears of new recession, but Exxon is positioned better that other with strong upstream and downstream ops. Yield up to 3%. |
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FedEx | 18 (19) | FDX | While economy slows, international transport appears to be holding its own. |
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Dow Chemical | 19 (20) | DOW | Another high yield stock that investors have come to favor. Demand for chemicals likely to drop based on recent economic data. |
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Wal-Mart | 20 (18) | WMT | Nagging fears about US operations, but all green lights overseas. |
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Caterpillar | 21 (21) | CAT | CEO makes positive comments both about the economy and company. Held hold shares from dip. |
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Verizon | 22 (24) | VZ | Early sales of Motorola Droid 2 bode well for Verizon Wireless growth. Yield is now an extraordinary 6.5%. |
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Boeing | 23 (23) | BA | Aerospace firm may get big order from Thai Air. Turn to profitability at many airlines and falling fuel prices are good news. |
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GE | 24 (22) | GE | Market starts to have mild panic again about assets in GE Capital. |
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American Express | 25 (30) | AXP | Wins key award for customer satisfaction and default rate falls. |
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Hewlett-Packard | 26 (29) | HPQ | Reports good results making CEO exit less of a concern. |
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Goldman Sachs | 27 (25) | GS | M&A deals rise sharply with Goldman as advisor for many of them. Volcker rule still looms. |
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JP Morgan | 28 (26) | JPM | More and more analysts are lowing targets for bank earnings on financial regulation package and slowing economy. |
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AT&T | 29 (28) | T | Despite growth in iPhone and iPad sales, success of Android-based phones may eat some market share. Complaints about 3G keeping rising. |
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Johnson & Johnson | 30 (27) | JNJ | Buffett buys JNJ stock. May be sign shares have bottomed but manufacturing problems are still months or more from resolution. |
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Home Depot | 31 (32) | HD | Home Depot posts slightly better than expected earnings, but future darkens with housing market. |
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Bank of America | 32 (31) | BAC | Bank of America hits 52-week low on concerns about housing market among other things. |
Douglas A. McIntyre
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