The 24/7 Wall St./Flame Index: The Press Turns Against Chevron

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published

Invalid Image
Negative press about Chevron (NYSE: CVX) has reached a boiling point after news that the oil company had been hit with a $9.5 billion ruling by an Ecuador count. The penalty comes from pollution of the local rain forest.  Chevron said it will appeal the court’s decision.

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 worst 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.

-Douglas A. Mcintyre

Rank Company Score Change in Rank Comments
1 Chevron 44.038 +43 Chevron loses suit in Ecuador. Penalty of $9.5 billion.
2 Fannie Mae 39.908 -1 Concern that the federal government will shutter the company and wipe out common shareholders.
3 Freddie Mac 33.699 -1 Another government-controlled mortgage entity that may be phased out in favor of private market lending.
4 DISH Network 33.581 +65 Echostar operation will buy Hughes. Price upsets shareholders.
5 Borders Group 21.601 -2 Bankruptcy usually causes negative press reactions.
6 Ford Motor 20.615 +164 China car sales drop sharply in January.
7 Wal-Mart Stores 20.197 +24 Major brokerage downgrade.
8 CF Industries Holdings 19.43 +68 Accident at its Hardee Phosphate Complex causes death.
9 Toyota Motor Corporation 18.725 -4 Fire closes plant that makes best-selling Prius.
10 Retail Ventures 18.506 +5 Buy-out by DSW hits legal hurdles.

Data and ranking provided by the Flame Index.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

MGM Vol: 27,683,097
CDW
CDW Vol: 3,240,293
DDOG Vol: 11,190,990
IT Vol: 2,031,591
DELL Vol: 20,848,965

Top Losing Stocks

FDX Vol: 2,399,340
CBOE Vol: 2,828,165
QCOM Vol: 21,186,645
CTRA Vol: 73,319,495
CEG Vol: 11,480,635