Earnings for the "Fortune 500" companies plunge 85 percent

[girl gone mad]

Looks like the list was heavily weighted to financials..

Exxon Mobil Tops Wal-Mart to Lead a Poorer Fortune 500
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/business/20fortune.html

Exxon Mobil unseated Wal-Mart Stores in the 2009 Fortune 500 list, during what the magazine called the worst year ever for the country’s largest publicly traded companies.

Fortune’s list, released Sunday, ranked companies by their revenue in 2008. Exxon, which is based in Irving, Tex., took in $442.85 billion in revenue last year, up almost 19 percent from 2007. The company also had the biggest annual profit, earning $45.2 billion.

Wal-Mart had held the top spot for six of the last seven years but fell to No. 2 this year. Still, the retail giant’s 2008 revenue climbed 7 percent to $405.6 billion, as the battered economy sent more consumers searching for bargains. The company, which is based in Bentonville, Ark., had $13.4 billion in annual profit, an increase of about 5 percent.

But overall earnings for the companies on the list plunged 85 percent to $98.9 billion from $645 billion in 2007. It was the biggest one-year decline in the 55-year history of the Fortune 500 list.

Energy companies continued to dominate many of the top positions, as last summer’s skyrocketing oil and gas prices more than compensated for their plunge in the fall. Chevron held on to third place with $263.16 billion in revenue, up 25 percent. ConocoPhillips climbed one place to fourth, with $230.76 billion in revenue. General Electric, the diverse conglomerate whose troubled financial arm has been weighing on recent results, rose one notch to fifth.

General Motors fell two spots to sixth, as revenue fell 18 percent and losses totaled $30.86 billion in the imploding car market. Ford Motor followed, with $146.28 billion in revenue.

Among the hardest hit in 2008 were financial services companies, Fortune said. Banks, securities firms and insurers took cumulative losses of $213.4 billion, accounting for almost 70 percent of the total dollar decline from the peak year of 2006, the magazine said.

[girl gone mad]

1. Worst Year in Fortune 500 History

From http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/">Barry Ritholtz:

Fortune 500 Annual List is out for 2008. It is FUGLY:

▪ 2008 was the worst year in the history of the Fortune 500 for America’s largest companies;

▪ Profits fell from $645 billion in profits in 2007, to just $98.9 billion - an 84.7% decline;

▪ Eleven of the top 25 largest corporate losses in list history took place last year;

▪ Insurance giant AIG posted a $99.3 billion loss — the biggest corporate loss of all time;

▪ Thirty-eight companies disappeared from the list altogether;

▪ Newcomers to the Fortune 500 list: Polo Ralph Lauren, Visa and Mastercard;

▪ 15 women ran Fortune 500 companies in 2008 — an all-time high;

▪ One out of every six working Americans — 25.6 million people — work for the nation’s largest companies;

[girl gone mad]

2. Corporate earnings through recessions