Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) was badly beaten by the press as concerns about privacy rose after disclosures that iPhone software can track customer locations. 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
| Rank | Company | Ticker | Score | Change in Rank | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Community Health Systems | CYH | 36.028 | +11 | |
| 2 | Apple | AAPL | 30.347 | +203 | |
| 3 | St. Jude Medical | STJ | 30.103 | +46 | |
| 4 | Transocean Ltd | RIG | 30.062 | -3 | |
| 5 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 29.453 | -1 | |
| 6 | Massey Energy | MEE | 26.942 | 0 | |
| 7 | Wal-Mart Stores | WMT | 26.231 | +510 | |
| 8 | GOOG | 25.926 | -5 | ||
| 9 | Tenet Healthcare | THC | 25.824 | +45 | |
| 10 | Cameron International | CAM | 25.103 | -8 | |
| 2 | Apple | AAPL | 30.347 | +203 | |
| 7 | Wal-Mart Stores | WMT | 26.231 | +510 | |
| 14 | RadioShack | RSH | 23.06 | +261 | |
| 20 | Goldman Sachs Group | GS | 20.316 | +139 | |
| 24 | PG&E Corp. | PCG | 19.95 | +516 |
Data and ranking provided by the Flame Index.
