24/7 Wall St.’s Corporate Power Rankings (Week 13)

The 24/7 Wall Street Corporate Power Rankings of the thirty-two 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.

The Corporate Power Rankings are released at midnight on each Sunday based on performance during the previous week.

Apple (AAPL) took back the top slot based on a surge in its share price and what seemed to be strong sales of the iPad. Ford (F) jumped to No.2 after March data showed it is taking domestic market share from most rivals. Boeing (BA) lost ground as its Dreamliner encountered more potential delays. A weak housing market kept Home Depot  (HD) in the basement.

	Company	Rank (last week)	Symbol	Comment
	Apple	1 (6)	APPL	Apple is the hands down No.1 this week and that could last some time. The iPad launch caused a frenzy of news coverage worth billions of dollars, and the product even got decent reviews.
	Ford	2 (1)	F	Ford did as well as excepted as it announced March sales. And, the expectations were colossal. The firm’s hottest selling models should do even better against the aged fleets of Chrysler and GM.
	Berkshire Hathaway	3 (5)	BRK	Berkshire Hathaway has become something of an economic recovery dream stock with its huge transportation and financial services businesses. And, after all, the economy is recovering.
	Disney	4 (3)	DIS	Disney is earlier than most media companies in announcing iPad content deals, as if it matters this early.
	IBM	5 (2)	IBM	IBM plans to increase partnerships with early stage companies as if they had any money to spend.
	Coca-Cola	6 (4)	KO	Coca-Cola starts integrating operations of the bottlers it bought. The company did not mention a lot of people will be fired in the process.
	McDonald’s	7 (7)	MCD	McDonald’s plans to double its presence in China just in time for the trade war. Fortunately, there is no argument about the cost of burgers in dollars or yuan.
	Abbott Labs	8 (9)	ABT	Abbott hit by slowed approval of its Certriad cholesterol drug.
	Wal-Mart	9 (11)	WMT	Wal-Mart lifted by improvement in employment numbers and its ability to price new bonds below market.
	Cisco	10 (8)	CSCO	Cisco sets new program to improve installation of growing WiFi tech. Even better, Barron’s speculates revenue could hit $100 billion.
	Johnson & Johnson	11 (12)	JNJ	Johnson & Johnson gets better-than- expected bid for its breast cancer business, but for some reason can’t decide whether to take it.
	Philip Morris	12 (13)	PM	Philip Morris sets up new $2.5 billion credit facility as favorable rates. Increases presence in China as it appoints Biadu CFO to its board.
	Verizon	13 (14)	VZ	Verizon takes health care reform charge of almost $1 billion, but S&P says the accounting action will not hurt the telco’s rating.
	Oracle	14 (10)	ORCL	Oracle’s CEO Ellison is named highest paid CEO of 2009 and the company does well to boot.
	Proctor & Gamble	15 (15)	PG	P&G faces slow approval of its Sara Lee unit buyout in Europe, but delay hurts Sara more than PG.
	Intel	16 (18)	INTC	Intel says it is working on more technology to wire American homes which would diversify away from PC base. The only problem is, as MSFT found, it may not work.
	GE	17 (16)	GE	GE faces pricing pressure for its medical unit under new Obamacare plan and firm faces rising pressure to raise dividend.
	Pfizer	18 (21)	PFE	Pilots can now take antidepressants like drug company’s Zoloft. Market for depressed pilots is still small.
	FedEx	19 (17)	FDX	FedEx expands truck fleet in US with electric engines but plug supply may be low.
	Dow Chemical	20 (22)	DOW	Dow benefits from general movement up in commodities. It may be able to raise prices, but at some point its cost of goods catches up.
	Microsoft	21 (19)	MSFT	Microsoft brags about record rate of Windows 7 sales but it does not have its own versions of the new iPad, or the iPhone and iPod for that matter.
	Exxon-Mobil	22 (25)	XOM	Exxon Mobil profits should rise if crude stays at $85, but market also expects refinery profits to stay low as the company passes along prices increases as finding gas gets more difficult.
	JP Morgan	23 (24)	JPM	JPMorgan hints it will increase its dividend which will raise its status from the best bank investment in the US to the best  of the best.
	Hewlett-Packard	24 (20)	HPQ	Hewlett-Packard will probably be hurt by iPad sales taking market share from netbooks, but HP’s consulting business should rebound with improvements in capital spending.
	Goldman Sachs	25 (26)	GS	Goldman Sachs tells BusinessWeek it is not to blame for the financial world’s problems. Even if that is not true, top management has kept the government out of its trading operations for another week.
	American Express	26 (27)	AXP	American Express signs co-branding credit card deal with Macy’s which gets the credit card company another pool of customers who can default.
	Google	27 (23)	GOOG	Google may be having trouble in China, but it Android mobile OS is taking big share from Apple and RIM. Too bad Google gives it away for free.
	Caterpillar	28 (29)	CAT	Caterpillar benefits from lessening in trade tensions with China. If Obama meeting with People’s Republic president, CAT will have another 100 years of prosperity in the East.
	Bank of America	29 (30)	BAC	Bank of America should be a long-term beneficiary of what appears to be an early rebound in housing and employment markets.
	Boeing	30 (28)	BA	Boeing is still having trouble with Dreamliner tests and has new competition for its bid to sell the Air Force its tankers.
	AT&T	31 (31)	T	AT&T gets new customers with iPad launch so that it can lose them to bad service. The iPad should put more pressure on the telco’s already burdened network.
	Home Depot	32 (32)	HD	Home Depot may benefit from the recovery of housing market—someday. But, in the meantime, construction figures are still awful.

Douglas A. McIntyre  [email protected]