24/7 Wall St.’s Corporate Power Rankings: Week 34

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 jumped up the rankings to No.1 on the strength of its new product launches. AT&T made a big move as it appears that the 4G efforts of rival Sprint-Nextel have begun to falter. And J&J stayed at the bottom of the list as it recalled hip joint replacements.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Apple	1 (4)	APPL	The momentum from new iPods and the Apple IPTV product will keep investors captivated for the next quarter.
	McDonald’s	2 (2)	MCD	Sale of Burger King to private equity is proof the public company investors are willing to admit Ronald McDonald rules the market.
	Proctor & Gamble	3 (5)	PG	J&J’s troubles work to P&G’s advantage. Tylenol and Motrin sales may not rebound for months. Latest data on US economy should also indicate that consumer spending is still alive–barely.
	Abbott Labs	4 (7)	ABT	The company will keep it flu vaccine division, which will come in handy for the next pandemic. Company’s weight loss drug Meridia is criticized, but is still on the market.
	IBM	5 (9)	IBM	Moves by HP and Dell to expand into enterprise computing show that IBM was smart to get their first and hold the high ground. HPQ loss of CEO also plays to IBM hands.
	Coca-Cola	6 (3)	KO	Coke buys Russian juice company Nidan to strengthen positions in large market. Shares approach 52-week high.
	Disney	7 (6)	DIS	Closes deal for long-term carriage of channels including ESPN and ABC on Time Warner Cable. Drawn-out negotiations could have put some audience in jeopardy.
	Cisco	8 (12)	CSCO	Router company pushes further into smart grid market with purchase of Arch Rock. Big tech company continues to have broadest diversity of products and services among peers.
	Philip Morris	9 (10)	PM	Stock hits 52-week high and yield is still 4.3%. Market still sees tobacco as a recession hedge.
	Google	10 (14)	GOOG	Search company finally begins to show promise outside core business. Move into social networks should benefit. YouTube will bring in $450 million in revenue this year and may make profit. Android strategy still a mystery.
	Ford	11 (8)	F	Still the strongest car company based in the US, but August domestic sales numbers for industry shows its vulnerability.
	Pfizer	12 (13)	PFE	Smart to walk away from faltering rindopepimut brain cancer drug trials. Buys FoldRx privately held drug discovery and clinical development company.
	Intel	13 (11)	INTC	Begins major push into critical market where it is weak–portable device chip–though a major deal with Infineon.
	Berkshire Hathaway	14 (1)	BRK	Makes bit for Wesco. CNA Financial Corp. completes its transfer of $1.6 billion of asbestos and environmental pollution liabilities to a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s firm. Lack of yield in BRK shares will hurt it if market turns back down.
	Oracle	15 (15)	ORCL	Hired former HP CEO Mark Hurd and gets a strong advantage over a rival while HP goes without a CEO. Hurd could make Oracle hardware business sing.
	Exxon-Mobil	16 (17)	XOM	Market for finished products appears to lift down-stream profits. Oil price become stable with jobs and stock market recovery. Both factors should put XOM up in coming weeks.
	FedEx	17 (16)	FDX	Increases capacity and logistics for freight between EU and China. Outperforms DJIA as oil prices stabilize and probably jet fuel as well.
	Microsoft	18 (18)	MSFT	Google tie-up with AOL may hurt chances for Bing to add market share in US search business. But Mr. Softy says Google China trouble will help Bing.
	Dow Chemical	19 (19)	DOW	Drift up in commodities prices will not help margins. Rival LyondellBasell comes out of Chapter 11 with balance sheet strength.
	Verizon	20 (22)	VZ	Market impressed and telecom raises dividend. New line of prepaid smartphones will help it in that growing market.
	Wal-Mart	21 (21)	WMT	Unemployment numbers should help big box retailer from losing ground in US during the holidays.FCC re-opens net neutrality case, which puts some VZ revenue at risk.
	Caterpillar	22 (20)	CAT	Trade gap will show whether heavy machine exports are doing well. Obama push to increase infrastructure spending may help here at home.
	GE	23 (23)	GE	Conglomerate executives says GE could spend $30 billion on M&A. May want to fix the businesses it own now first.
	American Express	24 (25)	AXP	Chase ups competition with AXP’s core card business. Market not deterred. Shares up 3% for last week and out-distance DJIA.
	Boeing	25 (24)	BA	Rival Airbus says it may top 2010 A380 sales which could take share from Boeing. American aircraft company says North America market will spend $700 billion on aircraft by 2030. Will Boeing outdistance its rival?
	AT&T	26 (29)	T	If Sprint and T-Mobile team up on WiFi, Ma Bell may have some real competition in 4G. New Google Gmail phone feature is bad for AT&T business.
	JP Morgan	27 (27)	JPM	Cutting proprietary trading operations–there go a lot of profits.
	Goldman Sachs	28 (28)	GS	Ditto.
	Bank of America	29 (31)	BAC	Trades near 52-week low. Refunds on faulty mortgages could reach $22 billion with Bank of America as one of the most likely targets.
	Hewlett-Packard	30 (26)	HPQ	Mark Hurd, former CEO, about to move to arch-rival Oracle.
	Home Depot	31	HD	Evidence grow that housing is getting worse, and there is an emerging school of those that government could withdraw some of its support.
	Johnson & Johnson	32	JNJ	Recalls move from OTC drugs to hip joint replacements.

Douglas A. McIntyre