24/7 Wall St.’s Corporate Power Rankings: Week 33

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

Berkshire Hathaway moved into the top spot as Warren Buffett celebrated his 80th birthday and four decades of remarkable investment success. Intel was hurt by a cut in its outlook. And JNJ dropped to the bottom sport as it announced another recall–this time for hip replacement devices.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Berkshire Hathaway	1 (6)	BRK	As Warren Buffett turns 80 years old, the company and its performance is testament to his extraordinary run as the world’s greatest investor.
	McDonald’s	2 (2)	MCD	The company’s strength last week is a sign that even with a slow economy, the firm’s prospects cannot be undermined.
	Coca-Cola	3 (3)	KO	Coca-Cola gets closer to a financially advantageous buyout for its bottling company.
	Apple	4 (4)	APPL	More evidence that iPad will hold a long-lived lead over rivals in tablet business. Jobs walled garden grows.
	Proctor & Gamble	5 (1)	PG	Will co-promote the insomnia treatment Silenor with Somaxon Pharmaceuticals.
	Disney	6 (5)	DIS	Walt Disney is close to agreement to renew carriage for ESPN on Time Warner Cable.
	Abbott Labs	7 (8)	ABT	Stock holds up well due to 3.5% yield, balance sheet, and steady business.
	Ford	8 (7)	F	August auto sales may soften but the No.2 car company is expected to gain share.
	IBM	9 (9)	IBM	Watches as rivals Dell and HP beat themselves up on 3Par deal. In the meantime, Big Blue quietly buys Sterling Commerce Interactive, an e-commerce gem.
	Philip Morris	10 (11)	PM	Yield of 4.5% keeps shares in good light as market dissolves.
	Intel	11 (10)	INTC	Warns on third quarter numbers but shares gain because the market feared it would be worse.
	Cisco	12 (12)	CSCO	Buys Extend Media to increase dominance of end-to-end, enterprise-to-consumer strategy.
	Pfizer	13 (13)	PFE	Pfizer releases data on blood thinner apixaban which could add significantly to sales.
	Google	14 (15)	GOOG	New free phone call offering may make the search company make money. But, buyout of social network Angstro provider could help Google’s competitive position in social networks.
	Oracle	15 (15)	ORCL	Stays in the background in week of tech M&A and jockeying for top spot is some niches. Glad to hold its current stable position.
	FedEx	16 (18)	FDX	Dahlman Rose initiates with “buy” rating on assumption that downturn in international shipping will be short-lived.
	Exxon-Mobil	17 (17)	XOM	PetroChina earnings strength bodes well Economic pullback has not bought crude down much.
	Microsoft	18 (16)	MSFT	Slowing PC sales cause concern as does ongoing failure of Window Mobile to dent Android growth.
	Dow Chemical	19 (19)	DOW	Handily beats DJIA last week. Yield and hope of industrial stimulus both help.
	Caterpillar	20 (21)	CAT	Caterpillar holds steady on the assumption that Asia construction will stay strong.
	Wal-Mart	21 (20)	WMT	Hurt by GDP concerns along with most retailers. Appeals class action status of female discrimination suit.
	Verizon	22 (22)	VZ	Early sales of Motorola Droid 2 bode well for Verizon Wireless growth. Yield is now extraordinary 6.5%.
	GE	23 (24)	GE	A great deal of the company’s broad product portfolio could be hurt by recession. Market skeptical that firm will see earnings rebound.
	Boeing	24 (23)	BA	Ugliness as 787 is delayed again. Company says earnings will not be affected–yet.
	American Express	25 (25)	AXP	Slowing economy could make default rates move up again. Forecasts for holiday earnings quarter will be essential to share price.
	Hewlett-Packard	26 (26)	HPQ	May win bloody bidding battle with Dell for 3Par, but the costs appears to be way too expensive given the value of the prize.
	JP Morgan	27 (28)	JPM	Fed easing should help banks fill balance sheet potholes. Market still assumes JP has less problems under the covers than most.
	Goldman Sachs	28 (27)	GS	Pick up in M&A should help its bottom line. Large financial firms also are finding ways around some of financial reform bill’s most difficult programs.
	AT&T	29 (29)	T	Faces pressure on price, according to new FCC study. Google telephone initiative is also bad news.
	Home Depot	30 (31)	HD	Stock moves up as yield play but movement will still be capped by troubled housing market.
	Bank of America	31 (32)	BAC	Touches 52-week low. Financial firm’s huge consumer bank business will almost certainly be damaged by second “dip.”
	Johnson & Johnson	32 (30)	JNJ	A recall almost every week. This time it’s hip-joint replacements.

Douglas A. McIntyre