Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae moved to the top of the negative news search as both lost billions of dollars. Frontier Oil remained high on the list due to concerns about its M&A plans. HealthSouth moved into the Top 10 after filing its 10-K.
Note: The Flame Index scans thousands of news sites 24 hours per day and ranks companies getting the most negative press right now. The Flame Index Media Analysis Algorithm crunches the data for an up-to-the-minute ranking of the hardest-hit companies.
The Flame Index started as a research tool in 2008 at the NY Innovation Design Lab (nyidlab). It was used as a general metric to evaluate companies and their risk in the media. Publicly traded Fortune 500 companies are used as a measure to calculate an overall market of negative news and the companies are ranked within that market.
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| Rank | Company | Ticker | Score | Change in Rank | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freddie Mac | FMCKJ | 37.441 | +37 | Large quarterly losses |
| 2 | Fannie Mae | FNMAS | 34.167 | +8 | Large quarterly losses |
| 3 | Frontier Oil | FTO | 29.945 | -2 | Concern about Holly M&A. Shareholder lawsuits |
| 4 | Walt Disney | DIS | 29.838 | -1 | New online video distribution hurts old media models |
| 5 | PNC Financial Services Group | PNC | 29.45 | +4 | Concern about pressure from government to increase lending |
| 6 | Bank of America Corp. | BAC | 29.227 | +10 | Concerns rise about mortgage settlement with Washington |
| 7 | HealthSouth | HLS | 23.678 | +681 | Released 10-K causes concerns |
| 8 | Ford Motor | F | 23.369 | +82 | GM profits show its competitive powers return |
| 9 | BP | BP | 23.067 | -2 | Still dogged by worries about regulators and Gulf spill |
| 10 | NYSE Euronext | NYX | 22.235 | +7 | Merger with Deutsche Borse may be troubled |
Data and ranking provided by the Flame Index.
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