Apple moved back to the top of the rankings as problems with the iPhone 4 began to lessen. Companies like P&G and McDonald’s moved up due to the market’s favorable opinion of safe harbor stocks. Goldman’s “victory” over the SEC pushed it up the list. J&J dropped to the last spot as recall problems hurt both its earning power and reputation.
| Company | Rank (last week) | Symbol | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Apple | 1 (3) | APPL | Jobs & Co seem to have done a very good job of digging themselves out of the iPhone 4 signal reception problem by using a rubber case to fix the problem. |
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Proctor & Gamble | 2 (1) | PG | When the market was down P&G with its strong balance sheet, steady earnings, and solid yield emerged as an excellent “run and hide” stock. |
| McDonald’s | 3 (2) | MCD | McDonald’s angers public by canceling a day of free “smoothie” drinks, its latest offering. Ronald & Co. thought they might run out of cups. In the meantime, another safe haven stock does well. | |
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IBM | 4 (5) | IBM | Intel earnings indicate a strong rebound in spending on corporate computing. Earnings on deck are expected to be good. Big Blue also outperformed the market last week. |
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Berkshire Hathaway | 5 (7) | BRK | Buffett will take over CNA asbestos risks. The move is gamble that liabilities will be modest. And, BRK gets $2 billion in cash as part of the deal. |
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Coca-Cola | 6 (4) | KO | Fitch says the risk of exposure to European slowdown to large US consumer companies is very modest. Coke is another big US consumer facing firm that outperformed the market. |
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Intel | 7 (8) | INTC | Earnings blow the doors off. Investigation of its “monopoly” deal with Dell still casts a shadow. |
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Disney | 8 (6) | DIS | Consumer sentiment numbers show theme park traffic may slow this summer. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” bombs at the box office. |
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Philip Morris | 9 (13) | PM | Cigarettes may kill but investors jump into coffin nail stocks when markets are choppy. |
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Ford | 10 (10) | F | Remarkably high marks in new JD Powers survey makes firm the company to beat in the global car industry. |
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Abbott Labs | 11 (9) | ABT | News on obesity and AIDS drugs may favor firm long-term. |
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Cisco | 12 (11) | CSCO | Wall St. worried about margins ahead of earnings. Slowing of 3G expansion in US may cripple top line. |
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Oracle | 13 (12) | ORCL | More reports that company’s strategic acquisitions are helping Ellison & Co. take business from a weakened SAP. |
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14 (15) | GOOG | Wall St upset about earnings, but Barron’s claims the stock is oversold. | |
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Wal-Mart | 15 (14) | WMT | Consumer spending and confidence numbers do not help Wall St. view of Sam Walton’s firm. Bernstein cuts earnings outlook. |
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Pfizer | 16 (16) | PFE | Will join other big pharma in offering AIDS drugs for generic manufacture for poor nations. May hurt profits, but is the right thing to do. |
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Hewlett-Packard | 17 (17) | HPQ | New data shows HP is still leader in global PC sales. Additional research shows global PC sales growing at 20%. Daily double. |
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FedEx | 18 (19) | FDX | BB&T Capital Markets says US air freight has reached record levels. Traffic to Asia continues to be strong. |
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American Express | 19 (18) | AXP | Market concerned by drop in consumer confidence. But, latest industry data shows defaults are slowing. |
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Microsoft | 20 (21) | MSFT | Market expects good jump in earnings because of Windows 7 sales but frets about whether Mr. Softy is still doing well in enterprise markets. |
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Dow Chemical | 21 (20) | DOW | Company makes odd forecast that the new global Olympic sponsorship will bring in $1 billion over ten years. Most people figure it is the companies that pay for the privilege. |
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Exxon-Mobil | 22 (22) | XOM | Much to relief of shareholders, it looks unlikely that company will make bid for BP. It could, however, get some assets from the UK-based firm at bargain rates. |
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Caterpillar | 23 (23) | CAT | Good news as rival Komatsu raises earnings estimates, but in US non-residential building forecast to fall 20% in 2010. |
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Boeing | 24 (26) | BA | Rumors that 787 Dreamliner will be delay until next year seem to be false. Company picks up key Dubai’s Emirates order of 777s worth $7 billion at the Farnborough International Airshow. |
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Verizon | 25 (25) | VZ | Launch of new Motorola Droid X seems to go well as handset is sold out in a day. Hiccup with iPhone could help bring modest business from AT&T Wireless. |
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GE | 26 (24) | GE | Market does not think much of earnings. Stock drops more than the DJIA in a rough week. |
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Goldman Sachs | 27 (30) | GS | Investment bank is consensus winner in $550 million settlement with SEC. The number is about two days of revenue at the firm. |
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Home Depot | 28 (28) | HD | Housing and consumer confidence still in the doghouse. But, the roofs over those houses are built with Home Depot products. |
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JP Morgan | 29 (31) | JPM | Banking giant’s numbers stand out as most money center banks post awful results. |
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Bank of America | 30 (32) | BAC | One of the firms that posted awful numbers. Shares drop 10% from last Tuesday to Friday. |
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AT&T | 31 (29) | T | iPhone 4 problems are not good for customer retention—or getting new ones. Earnings are expected to be lackluster as most of the growth has been wrung out of the US market. |
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Johnson & Johnson | 32 (27) | JNJ | Recall woes, plant closings, government investigations, and rising liabilities. Huge errors in handling Tylenol problems will cost the company dearly. |
Douglas A. McIntyre
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