10/30/09 Fri. am PG Results Beat Forecasts; Exxon's Earnings Way Down

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Post #186 The following is brought to you by Intellivest Securities Research, Inc. The following is not intended as advertising by a broker-dealer and is not a research report. Towards the end of this Blog is a list of the Dow 30 CEO's, a ranking of the Dow 30 by market capitalization as of close of 10/28/09 and an update of the Dow 30's most recent SEC filings as of 10/12/09.

A read of Friday's 10/29/09 print editions of: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Financial Times, Investors Business Daily, USA Today, Atlanta Journal Constitution, Fulton Daily Report & 10/30/09 - 11/5/09 Atlanta Business Chronicle yielded the following stories about Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 component companies and the Dow with stories about the Dow aggregated first and then items about Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 companies presented alphabetically, followed by symbol and Thursday's closing price and related data:

Dow: The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed Thursday at 9962.58 up 199.89 or 2.05% from Wednesday's close of 9762.99. Of the 30 Dow Companies: 1 declined (Merck) and 29 gained. The biggest gainer dollar-wise was Caterpillar CAT $57.25 2.82 5.18% 9,805,322 NYSE and percentage-wise was Alcoa 13 +1.07 8.97% 43,903,149 NYSE and the biggest decliner dollar-wise and percentage-wise was the only decliner Merck MRK $31.31 -0.74 2.31% 39,823,568 NYSE.

WSJ pC1 "Blue Chips Surge 199.89 Points" by Matt Phillips says volatility is back for stocks with outsize drops one day, rallies the next. One day after worries about the sustainability of the recent rally seemed to be gathering steam, a gov report of better than expected economic growth sent stocks soaring with the biggest gains in more than 3 months. The biggest point gain for the Dow since July 15 and the biggest percentage gain since July 23 followed the three triple-digit losses in 4trading days. Alcoa led the Dow's gains in percentage terms, up 9%. Caterpillar, which rose 5.2%, was the biggest contributorto the price weighted Dow.

WSJ pC5 "Alcoa, Caterpillar And AmEx Pace Dow" by Geofrey Rogow says a better-than-expected reading on 3Q gross domestic product sent stocks sharply higher, with Wed.'s biggest declienrs - Alcoa, Caterpillar & American Express- serving as Thursday's leaders. Gains for the index were broad-based, with 29 of the index's 30 components closing higher. Alcoa was up 9%, Caterpillar up 5.2%, and American Express up 5.1%. Even Exxon Mobil rose, up 0.2%, though the world's largest publicly traded oil company posted a 68% drop in 3Q profit before the opening bell and traded lower for much of the moring. Procter & Gamble, rose 4% as its quarterly earnings exceeded its forecasts and the consumer products giant boosted its sales forecast for the year.

NYT pB5 "Upbeat US Growth Report Prompts a Surge in Markets" by Javier C. Hernandez says the news that the US economy had growth for the first time n a year elecrified investors on Thurs., sending stocks up after 4 days of sizable declines.

FT p26 "S&P bounces back after latest batch of strong earnings" by David Oakley says Wall St. rose strongly yesterday, reversing a 4 day losing run, after the US economy emerged from the worst recession for more than 70 years. Stocks were also underpinned by better than expected corporate earnings which raised hopes that the 7 month equity rally can continue.

IBD pA1 "Stocks Gallp Ahead, But Volume Turns Downward" by Paul Whitfield says stocks posted nice gains Thurs., but lower volume suggested the big money remained on the sidelines. An unexpectedly strong GDP number helped the stock market open on the upside.

USA Today p4B "Stocks gain as investors celebrate GDP" says the Dow Jones indsutrials posted their best one day point gain since mid-July Thurs. as investors saw data showing the US economy returned to growth in the 3Q as a bright sign for corp. profits.

The current divisor for the Dow found at today's page C4 of The Wall St. Jrnl is .132319125 unchanged where it is also noted that as of market open Friday the Dow's trailing P/E ratio is 16.75 up from Thursday's 16.04 (year ago was nil), the P/E estimate is 16.03 unchanged (1 year ago it was 9.93), and the dividend yield is 2.81 down from Thursday's 2.87 (a year ago it was 3.51).

Thursday's Dow Jones Industrial Average closing numerator was 1318.24 up 26.41 from Wednesday's closing Dow numerator of 1291.83. This is the sum of all 30 closing prices. A short cut to the Dow numerator is to multiply the closing Dow by the Divisor. Now, if you divide the Dow numerator increase of 26.41 for Thursday by the divisor you get the increase of 199.89 in Thursday's Dow close.

The average closing price (the closing numerator divided by 30) of Thursday's Dow Jones Industrial Average was $43.94 up 0.88 from Wednesday's Dow Jones Industrial Average closing price of 43.06. The median closing price of Thursday's Dow Jones Industrial Average was $40.40 up $3.72 from Wednesday's Dow Jones median closing price of $36.68.

The highest closing price Thursday again was IBM $122.87 +1.37 1.13% 6,070,817 NYSE and the lowest closing price Thursday again was Alcoa AA $13 +1.07 8.97% 43,903,149 NYSE. The lowest volume Thursday was 3M MMM $75.48 +1.02 1.37% 4,055,360NYSE and the highest volume again was Bank of Am BAC $15.73 +0.72 4.8% 197,185,290 NYSE.

If Thursday morning before the market opened you had purchased $100 of each of the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 shares (assuming you could buy fractional shares and assuming no transaction costs) and sold at the close you would have made $2,640.
($131,820 - $129,180)

AT&T T $26.23 +0.15 0.58% 30,958,371 NYSE: WSJ pB5 "Unraveling In-Building Wireless Networks" by Don Clark says mobile workers often complain about wireless connections in the office, while cellular carriers are grappling with a rising flood of traffic. One silicon Valley start-up, Spidercloud Wireless is introducing technology to take over the job of delivering either cellular or Wi-Fi signals to the smart phones or laptops of workers in the officer. AT&T, the cellular carrier that provides service for the iPhone, earlier this month estimated that wireless data growth on its network expanded 4,932% (that's right 4 thousand +) between the third quarter of '06 and the 2nd quarter of '09.

Atlanta Business Chronicle p1 Headline "Smartphone battle begins" by Urvaksh Karkaria says having watchd AT&T Inc. carve away at the smartphone market with Apple's iPhone, Verizon Wireless has launched the Droid, a Motoroal Inc. made smartphone that runs on the Google Inc. developed Android operating system. Atlanta, one of the most wired cities in the nation and a technology city, will be a key battleground in the Droid/iPhone showdown. 81% of the adults in the Atlanta area use a cell phone, making it the sixth most saturated market in the US. Atlanta is home to Verizon Wirelss' Southern headquarters, which covers the area from Texas through the Carolinas. Verizon Wireless employs about 3,000 in metro Atlanta. Atlanta is also headquarters city of AT&t Mobility and Consumer Markets, led by Realph de la Vega. AT&T, as a whole, employs about 20,000 in metro Atlanta.

Alcoa AA $13 +1.07 8.97% 43,903,149 NYSE: WSJ pC1 "Blue Chips Surge 199.89 Points" by Matt Phillips says volatilty is back for stocks with outsize drops one day, rallies the next. One day after worries about the sustainability of the recent rally seemed to be gathering steam, a gov report of better than expected economic growth sent stocks soaring with the biggest gains in more than 3 months. The biggest point gain for the Dow since July 15 and the biggest percentage gain since July 23 followed the three triple-digit losses in 4 trading days. Alcoa led the Dow's gains in percentage terms, up 9%. Caterpillar, which rose 5.2%, was the biggest contributor to the price weighted Dow.

WSJ pC5 "Alcoa, Caterpillar And AmEx Pace Dow" by Geofrey Rogow says a better-than-expected reading on 3Q gross domestic product sent stocks sharply higher, with Wed.'s biggest decliners - Alcoa, Caterpillar & American Express- serving as Thursday's leaders. Gains for the index were broad-based, with 29 of the index's 30 components closing higher. Alcoa was up 9%, Caterpillar up 5.2%, and American Express up 5.1%. Even Exxon Mobil rose, up 0.2%, though the world's largest publicly traded oil company posted a 68% drop in 3Q profit before the opening bell and traded lower for much of the moring. Procter & Gamble, rose 4% as its quarterly earnings exceeded its forecasts and the consumer products giant boosted its sales forecast for the year.

American Express AXP $36.44 +1.77 5.11% 12,868,190 NYSE: WSJ pC5 "Alcoa, Caterpillar And AmEx Pace Dow" by Geofrey Rogow says a better-than-expected reading on 3Q gross domestic product sent stocks sharply higher, with Wed.'s biggest declienrs - Alcoa, Caterpillar & American Express- serving as Thursday's leader. Gains for the index were broad-based, with 29 of the index's 30 components closing higher. Alcoa was up 9%, Caterpillar up 5.2%, and American Express up 5.1%. Even Exxon Mobil rose, up 0.2%, though the world's largest publicly traded oil company posted a 68% drop in 3Q profit before the opening bell and traded lower for much of the moring. Procter & Gamble, rose 4% as its quarterly earnings exceeded its forecasts and the consumer products giant boosted its sales forecast for the year.

Bank of America BAC $15.73 +0.72 4.8% 197,185,290 NYSE: WSJ pA8 "US Seeks Power to Force Even Strong Banks to Shrink" by Damian Paletta says Treasury Sec'y Timothy Geithner said Thurs that his proposal to overhaul banking rules would give the gov the ability to order even healthy companies to shrink and separate if their size or scope threatened the broader economy. The financial crisis has redrawn US banking in the past 2 years, with several of the country's largest firms collapsing into banktupcy or into the arms of competitors. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo controlled a combined 33% of US deposits as of June 30, up from 22% at hte end of '08.

Atlanta Business Chronicle says Bank of America has been replaced by suntrust as the top bank in Atlanta for deposits.

Boeing BA $48.81 +1.59 3.37% 8,147,000 NYSE: WSJ pB3 "Strong Euro Weighs on Airbus, Suppliers" by Daniel Michaels says Airbus's first delivery of an A380 super jumbo jetliner to Air France on Fri, which both firms are likely to tout as a proud moment for European industry, also drives home a message that there is pain being inflicted on euro-zone producers by Europe's common currency. Airbus's US rival, Boeing Co., which sells and operates in dollars, faces almost none of the margin squeeze or currency risk.

Caterpillar CAT $57.25 +2.82 5.18% 9,805,322 NYSE: WSJ pC1 "Blue Chips Surge 199.89 Points" by Matt Phillips says volatility is back for stocks with outsize drops one day, rallies the next. One day after worries about the sustainability of the recent rally seemed to be gathering steam, a gov report of better than expected economic growth sent stocks soaring with the biggest gains in more than 3 months. The biggest point gain for the Dow since July 15 and the biggest percentage gain since July 23 followed the three triple-digit losses in 4 trading days. Alcoa led the Dow's gains in percentage terms, up 9%. Caterpillar, which rose 5.2%, was the biggest contributor to the price weighted Dow.

WSJ pC5 "Alcoa, Caterpillar And AmEx Pace Dow" by Geofrey Rogow says a better-than-expected reading on 3Q gross domestic product sent stocks sharply higher, with Wed.'s biggest decliners - Alcoa, Caterpillar & American Express- serving as Thursday's leader. Gains for the index were broad-based, with 29 of the index's 30 components closing higher. Alcoa was up 9%, Caterpillar up 5.2%, and American Express up 5.1%. Even Exxon Mobil rose, up 0.2%, though the world's largest publicly traded oil company posted a 68% drop in 3Q profit before the opening bell and traded lower for much of the moring. Procter & Gamble, rose 4% as its quarterly earnings exceeded its forecasts and the consumer products giant boosted its sales forecast for the year.

Chevron CVX $77.95 +2.06 2.71% 14,424,704 NYSE: NYT pA8 "Revelation Undermines Chevron's Case in Ecuador" by Clifford Krauss says the witness for Chevron who claims to have secretly videotaped a judge in the case taking a bribe has been accused of being a convicted drug trafficer among other things. The case has been pending for 10 years and arises from Chevron's acquisition of Texaco who is accused by Ecuadoran peasants of poisoning them through oil pollution.

WSJ pC10 "Waiting for Shell to Reach Cruising Speed" by Matthew Curtin says Roay Dutch Shell's net fell 62% compared with 34% at BP because of weak natural gas prices and flat output. Chevron gave the go-ahead last month to its Gorgon liquefied-natural-gas project in Australia in which Sehll has a 25% stake. Shell's stock trades at 9.9 times 2010 earnings, a discount to BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

NYT pB3 "Oil Giants' Profit Reflect Decline in Energy Prices" by Jad Mouawad says after posting record profits last year, major oil companies have struggled to adapt to a world of lower prices and slower economic growth. they have slashed costs, shed employees and pared high cost investments made when prices were rising. Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell, the top European company, both reported sharp declines in 3Q earnings. Exxon was the world's most profitable firm in '08, earning $45 bil as oil averaged $100 a barrel. Chevron, the second largest American oil company, will report earnings on Fri.

Cisco CSCO $23.52 +0.50 2.17% 38,760,517 NASDAQ-GS: No mentions found.

Coca-Cola KO $54.09 +0.58 1.08% 7,043,990 NYSE: Atlanta Bus. Chron. p25A says higher prices propelled Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. to profit growth of 15% in 3Q. CCE is based in Atlanta and is controlled by Coca-Cola also based in Atlanta.

Disney DIS $28.14 +0.90 3.3% 12,850,291 NYSE: WSJ pA23 "Net Neutrality: Spur To Entrepreneurship" by Mitchell Baker, John Lilly says Mozilla foundation supports the FCC's proposal of net neutrality. Thosuands of firms including Disney and Walmart complement their business through the distribution and audience aggregation power of the Internet. They say the Firefox Web browser is one example of the innovation and participation made possible by an open Internet (proud Uncle's disclosure: my nephew, Blake Ross, was one of the principal architects of Firefox).

DuPont DD $32.97 +0.88 2.74% 7,259,559 NYSE: No mentions found.

ExxonMobil XOM $73.96 +0.12 0.16% 29,145,393 NYSE: WSJ pB1 "In the Oil Patch, a Tale of Have and Have Not, At Exxon, A Struggle for Growth" by Russell Gold, Thomas Catan, Bernad Radowitz says Exxon Mobil Corp. is struggling to pump more oil and natural gas, even as smaller competitors are increasing output. Exxon's earnings fell 68% to $4.73 bil in 3Q compared with a record setting $14.83 bil a year earlier. Per share earnings fell to 98 cents from $2.85, weighed down by falling oil and gas prices and a $203 mil loss in Exxon's US refining operations. As demand for energy is poised to revive with the global economy, Exxon and its Big Oil brethren are having a tough time finding subsantial new sources of oil to tap, in large measure becuz of growing competition from nat'l oil companies in Africa and the Mid East. Exxon is shifting from this strategy of buying back its own shares to prop up its stock price. Exxon is trying to buy a stake in a new oil field off the coast of Ghana & it is considering bidding for biz in Irag.

WSJ pC5 "Alcoa, Caterpillar And AmEx Pace Dow" by Geofrey Rogow says a better-than-expected reading on 3Q gross domestic product sent stocks sharply higher, with Wed.'s biggest decliners - Alcoa, Caterpillar & American Express- serving as Thursday's leader. Gains for the index were broad-based, with 29 of the index's 30 components closing higher. Alcoa was up 9%, Caterpillar up 5.2%, and American Express up 5.1%. Even Exxon Mobil rose, up 0.2%, though the world's largest publicly traded oil company posted a 68% drop in 3Q profit before the opening bell and traded lower for much of the moring. Procter & Gamble, rose 4% as its quarterly earnings exceeded its forecasts and the consumer products giant boosted its sales forecast for the year.

WSJ pC10 "Waiting for Shell to Reach Cruising Speed" by Matthew Curtin says Roay Dutch Shell's net fell 62% compared with 34% at BP because of weak natural gas prices and flat output. Chevron gave the go-ahead last month to its Gorgon liquefied-natural-gas project in Australia in which Sehll has a 25% stake. Shell's stock trades at 9.9 times 2010 earnings, a discount to BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil.

NYT pB3 "Oil Giants' Profit Reflect Decline in Energy Prices" by Jad Mouawad says after posting record profits last year, major oil companies have struggled to adapt to a world of lower prices and slower economic growth. They have slashed costs, shed employees and pared high cost investments made when prices were rising. Exxon and Roayl Dutch Shell, the top European company, both reported sharp declines in 3Q earnings. Exxon was the world's most profitable firm in '08, earning $45 bil as oil averaged $100 a barrel. Chevron, the second largest American oil company, will report earnings on Fri.

Similar story at F p14 F21 by Carola Hoyos, Sheila McNulty.

IBD pB3 Major Oil Plays Moving Higher In Heavy Trade" by Alan R. Elliott says shares of major itegrated oil operations were primed for a growth spurts according a a report. Exxon's earnings are discussed.

GE $14.87 +0.45 3.12% 82,217,527 NYSE: No mentions found.

Hewlett-Packard HPQ $48.35 +1.42 3.03% 15,036,660 NYSE: No mentions found.

Home Depot HD $25.91 +0.70 2.78% 12,692,730 NYSE: WSJ pC10 "Amazon's Astute Timing" by Martin Peers says that Amazon's financial success is partly based on its ability to take in money for selling merchandise before it has to pay its suppliers. Now it is staeadily lengthening the time it takes to pay suppliers. Sharply boosting accounts payable also helped Robert Nardelli transform Home Depot's cash generation after he took charge at the end of 2000. HD went from reporting negative free cash flow to $2.57 bil in fiscal '02. But gains from working capital efficiency petered out. Something similar could happen to Amazon.

Atlanta Business Chronicle p11A Home Depot buys site for rapid distribution center" says the Home Depot paid $5.76 mil for a 72 acre site in Westfield, Mass. where it plans to build a Northeast rapid distribution center.

Intel INTC $19.22 +0.19 1% 75,637,073 NASDAQ-GS: WSJ pB5 "Intel Sees Businesses Spending" by Jerry A. DiColo says firms are returning to tech spending, altho they are driven more by savings offered than by any spending increasing says Intel's finance chief, Stacy Smith.

NYT pB1 "In Galleon Case, Questions Over a Non-Pursuit" by Ashlee Vance, Michael J. de la Merced says the first tip from inside Intel reached Raj Rajaratnam more than a decade ago, from the same source who has now turned against him in the biggest insider trading case in a generation that has ensnared Intel and IBM execs.

A story about Galleon is also at FT p6 by David Gelles.

IBM $122.87 +1.37 1.13% 6,070,817 NYSE: NYT pB1 "In Galleon Case, Questions Over a Non-Pursuit" by Ashlee Vance, Michael J. de la Merced says the first tip from inside Intel reached Raj Rajaratnam more than a decade ago, from the same source who has now turned against him in the biggest insider trading case in a generation that has ensnared Intel and IBM execs.

A story about Galleon is also at FT p6 by David Gelles and at FT p15 by Henny Sender.

J.P. Morgan JPM $44.35 +1.67 3.91% 33,688,237 NYSE: WSJ pA8 "US Seeks Power to Force Even Strong Banks to Shrink" by Damian Paletta says Treasury Sec'y Timothy Geithner said Thurs that his proposal to overhaul banking rules would give the gov the ability to order even healthy companies to shrink and separate if their size or scope threatened the broader economy. The financial crisis has redrawn US banking in the past 2 years, with several of the country's largest firms collapsing into banktupcy or into the arms of competitors. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo controlled a combined 33% of US deposits as of June 30, up from 22% at hte end of '08.

USA Today p1B "IB wokers getting 100% coverage" saing IBM will pay the co-pay for 80% of its 15,000 US employees to get them to go to the doctor when they need to.

Johnson & Johnson JNJ $59.86 +0.29 0.49% 13,579,298 NYSE: No mentions found.

Kraft KFT $27.55 +0.60 2.23% 12,921,184 NYSE: No mentions found.

McDonald's MCD $59.14 +0.50 0.85% 6,729,928 NYSE: No mentions found.

Merck MRK $31.31 -0.74 2.31% 39,823,568 NYSE: IBD pA2 "Conditions set for Merck merger" says the FTC approved Merck's $41.1 bil takeover of rival Schering-Plough on condition that each sell some assets. Schering-Plough will sell its rolapitant drug, a treatment for nausea and vomiting in chmo patients to Opko Helath and Merck will sell its interest in Merial, an animal health biz, to Sanofi-Aventis. EU regulators approved the deal last week.

WSJ pC5 "Priceline to Join S&P 500" which will replace Schering-Plough which is merging with Merck & Co., in a deal expected to close soon, pending final approval.

Microsoft MSFT $28.22 +0.20 0.71% 63,495,657 NASDAQ-GS: WSJ pC10 "In Nintendo Videogames Wii Trust" by James Simms says Nintendo cut its forecast by one third and Microsoft and Sony have cut console prices, prompting Nintendo to do the same last month.

IBD "It's iPhone vs. OPhone In China Smart Phones" by Brian Deagon says China Unicom, China's No. 2 cellular carrier, begins selling the iPhone in China on Fri under an exclusive, 3 year deal with Apple. Android and Apple could dominate in China, to the detriment of Microsoft, RIm and Nokia, which could translate into further global dominance according to Gerry Purdy, analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

Pfizer PFE $17.55 +0.34 1.98% 56,066,694 NYSE: NYT pB2 "AstraZeneca Pays Millions To Settle Seroquel Cases" by Duff Wilson says AstraZeneca will pay a $520 mil ageement to settle lawsuits over the sale and marketing of its blockbuster psychiatric drug Seroquel which has been increasingly used for kids and old folks for indications not approved by the FDA. Pfizer earlier has said it would pay $2.3 bil, including arecord $1.195 bil criminal fine, mostly over its painkiller Bextra, which has been withdrawn from the market.

Procter & Gamble PG $59.54 +2.31 4.04% 25,755,288 NYSE: WSJ pB4 "P&G, Colgate Notice Shoppers Trading Up" by Ellen Byron says shoppers are slowly returning to some premium priced household staples, leading Procter & Gamble co. and Cogate-Palmolive co. on Thurs. to report better-than-expected results for the quarter ended 9/30 and to make optimistic forecasts for the coming pictures. There is a portrait of PG CEO Robert McDonald that reflects intelligence. PG is going to launch a flurry of new products rather than slash prices to ward off the cheaper brands that have lured away consumers during the economic downturn. PG will increase advertising and expand its megabrands across a wider range of higher and lower prices. PG's more expensive products posted sales gain during the quarter, including Gillette's 5-blade Fusion razors and Olay's Pro-X moisturizer. PG had profits of $4.31 bil or $1.06 a share for the quarter ended 9/30 down from $3.35 bil or $1.03 a year earlier. Per share results rose as the number of shares outsanding fell. Sales fell 6% to $19.81 bil.

WSJ pC5 "Alcoa, Caterpillar And AmEx Pace Dow" by Geofrey Rogow says a better-than-expected reading on 3Q gross domestic product sent stocks sharply higher, with Wed.'s biggest decliners - Alcoa, Caterpillar & American Express- serving as Thursday's leader. Gains for the index were broad-based, with 29 of the index's 30 components closing higher. Alcoa was up 9%, Caterpillar up 5.2%, and American Express up 5.1%. Even Exxon Mobil rose, up 0.2%, though the world's largest publicly traded oil company posted a 68% drop in 3Q profit before the opening bell and traded lower for much of the moring. Procter & Gamble, rose 4% as its quarterly earnings exceeded its forecasts and the consumer products giant boosted its sales forecast for the year.

WSJ pC10 "Overhead" says an analyst from UBS, Nik Modi, asked PG CEO Bob McDonald about morale at PG and McDonald gave a response that resulted in the item's tag line being "Group hug, anyone?"

Similar story at NYT pB6 by AP and at FT p20 by Jonathan Birchall.

3M MMM $75.48 +1.02 1.37% 4,055,360 NYSE: No mentions found.

Travelers TRV $51.91 +1.41 2.79% 5,096,145 NYSE: No mentions found.

United Technologies UTX $63.58 +0.97 1.55% 4,813,883 NYSE: No mentions found.

Verizon VZ $30.04 +0.09 0.3% 21,458,775 NYSE: WSJ pB4 "Motorola custs costs to Offset Slump" by Roger Cheng says Motorola swung to a 3Q profit, as cost cuts offset a 27% decline in rev, ahead of the debut of 2 new phones aimed at reversing the handset maker's prolonged sales slump. Verizon Wireless, which is jointly owned by Verizon Communcations,Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC is already heaving promoting Motorola's Droid phone, which was unveiled Wed.

Similar story at NYT pB4 by Reuters and FT p18 by Richard Waters.

Atlanta Business Chronicle p1 Headline "Smartphone battle begins" by Urvaksh Karkaria says having watchd AT&T Inc. carve away at the smartphone market with Apple's iPhone, Verizon Wireless has launched the Droid, a Motoroal Inc. made smartphone that runs on the Google Inc. developed Android operating system. Atlanta, one of the most wired cities in the nation and a technology city, will be a key battleground in the Droid/iPhone showdown. 81% of the adults in the Atlanta area use a cell phone, making it the sixth most saturated market in the US. Atlanta is home to Verizon Wirelss' Southern headquarters, which covers the area from Texas through the Carolinas. Verizon Wireless employs about 3,000 in metro Atlanta. Atlanta is also headquarters city of AT&t Mobility and Consumer Markets, led by Realph de la Vega. AT&T, as a whole, employs about 20,000 in metro Atlanta.

Wal-Mart WMT $50.4 +0.50 1% 13,985,431 NYSE: WSJ pB6 "Amid Price War, 3 Retailers Begin Rationing Books" by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Miguel Bustillo says small booksellers saw a way to stock shelves with below-cost titles sold by Walmart, Amazon & Target. 2 weeks after an online book price war broke out among giant retailers, Walmart, Amazon & Target are limiting the number of copies their customers can buy in order to stop other booksellers from scooping up cheap copies in large quantities and reselling them.

WSJ pB6 has a related story, "Discounting of Books Isn't Allowed in Much of Europe" by Vanessa Fuhrmans says in price wars such as gong on in US between Walmart, Amazon & Target for books are illegal as price fixing in much of Europe.

WSJ pA23 "Net Neutrality: Spur To Entrepreneurship" by Mitchell Baker, John Lilly says Mozilla foundation supports the FCC's proposal of net neutrality. Thosuand of firms including Disney and Walmart complement their business through the distribution and audience aggregation power of the Internet. They say the Firefox Web browser is one example of the innovation and participation made possible by an open Internet (proud Uncle's disclosure: my nephew, Blake Ross, was one of the principal architects of Firefox).

Atlanta Business Chronicle p32A "Case serves as a warning for mall tenants" by Dan Kolber (that's right, yours truly, your faithful blogger) says that Wal-Mart is the nationls best known mall anchor in an article that warns about what could happen to smaller tenants in malls as anchors depart in this bad economy. Smaller tenants should insert protective clauses in their leases for such an event.
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Here are the CEOs of the Dow 30 Companies:

T Randall L. Stephenson
AA Klaus Kleinfeld
AXP Kenneth I. Chenault
BAC Kenneth D. Lewis (on 10/1 he announced his resignation as of year-end).
BA W. James McNerney, Jr.
CAT James W. Owens who will be replaced by Douglas Oberhelman in 2010.
CVX David O'Reilly who will be replaced by John Watson at year end.
CSCO John Chambers
KO Muhtar Kent
DIS Robert Iger
DD Ellen Kullman
XOM Rex W. Tillerson
GE Jeffrey R. Immelt
HPQ Mark Hurd
HD Frank Blake
INTC Paul S. Otellini
IBM Samuel J. Palmisano
JPM Jamie Dimon
JNJ William C. Weldon
KFT Irene Rosenfeld
MCD Jim Skinner
MRK Robert Clark
MSFT Steve Ballmer
PFE Jeffrey Kindler
PG Bob McDonald
MMM George W. Buckley
TRV Jay S. Fishman
UTX Louis Chenevert
VZ Ivan Seidenberg
WMT Mike Duke

Here are the Dow Jones Industrial Average 30 ranked in order of market capitalization rounded to the nearest billion as of
10/28/09:
1. Exxon Mobil XOM $355
2. Microsoft MSFT 250
3. WalMart WMT 192
4. JPMorgan Chase 168
5. Procter & Gamble PG 167
6. Johnson & Johnson JNJ 164
7. IBM 159
8. At&t T 154
9. GE 153
10. Chevron CVX 152
11. Cisco CSCO 133
12. BAC 130
13. Coke KO 124
14. Pfizer PFE 116
15. Hewlett-Packard HPQ 111
16. Intel INTC 107
17. Verizon VZ 85
18. Merck MRK 68
19. McDonald's MCD 64
20. United Technologies UTX 59
21. 3M MMM 52
22. Disney DIS 51
23. Home Depot 43
24. American Express AXP 41
25. Kraft KFT 40
26. Boeing BA 34
27. Caterpillar CAT 34
28. DuPont DD 29
29. Travelers TRV 28
30. Alcoa AA 12

Here are the latest SEC filings as of 10/12/09 other than ownership filings and, except for certain cases, I do not include third party shareholder proposals:

Symbol & Co. Name/Date of Filing/Form Filed/ Comments

T AT&T: 10/2/09 11K Annual Report of employee stock purchase plan.

8/28/09 two 8K's, one announcing it had reached agreement with the Communications Workers of America (on a new, three-year contract covering approximately 7,000 wireline employees (located across the U.S.) under the CWA Communications and Technologies contract, subject to approval by these employees. The second 8K said two subsidiaries of AT&T redeemed certain long-term debt issues as of September 28, 2009.

Alcoa AA: 10/8/09 announcing financial results for the third quarter.

7/29/09 8K announcing that Alain J. P. Belda, executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of AA retired as an executive officer but is staying on as a director until April 23, 2010.

American Express AXP: 10/2/09 8K announcing departure of Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., as Pesident and head of AXP Global Consumer Group as of 4/10/09.

9/15/09 8K annoucing delinquency and write-off statistics for the lending portfolio of its U.S. Card Services operating segment for the months ended June 30, July 31 and August 31, 2009.

9/2/09 10Q;

Bank of Am BAC: 10/9/09 several free writing prospectus regarding issuance of securities.

Boeing BA: 10/9/09 8K announcing the election to the Board and Audit & Fin. Committee of retired Admiral Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr. former Vice-Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff '05- '07.

10/6/09 8K announcing a charge to third quarter earnings in connection with delays in the 747-8 program.

9/15/09 8K announcing that pursuant to a 1978 SEC settlement, BA informed the SEC of a change in its policy re the appointment of foreign consultants and to whom they report.

8/31/09 8K announcing the retirement of Scott E. Carson, Executive Vice President, President and Chief Executive Officer, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, effective January 1, 2010. Effective September 1, 2009, Mr. Carson will leave his current position and assume the role of Executive Vice President. Carson will be replaced by James F. Albaugh.

8/27/09 8K announcing a revised schedule for the 787 Dreamliner and a charge to third quarter earnings related to flight test aircraft.

Caterpiller CAT: 10/5/09 8K announcing price changes on most machines worldwide effective Jan. '10.

9/23/09 8K announcing a new credit agreement with The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., that provides for an unsecured aggregate revolving credit facility up to $2.38 billion that serves as an alternative source of funds, if necessary, for CAT's commercial paper programs.

9/21/09 8K furnishing supplemental information concerning deliveries to users for its Machinery and Engines lines of business. Caterpillar sells the majority of its machinery and engines to independently owned and operated dealers and Original Equipment Manufacturers to meet the demands of their customers, the end users. Retail Sales of Machines by marketing region for the 3-month rolling period compared with the same months of the prior year were down significantlly.

9/15/09 8K announcing CAT and Navistar International Corporation (NYSE: NAV)formed a joint venture transaction resulting in a new company, NC2 Global LLC, to serve the global commercial truck market to be based in Chicago.

Chevron CVX: 10/8/09 8K announcing third quarter interim financial results.

9/30/09 8K announcing the retirement of CEO David J. OReilly who is being replaced by John S. Watson and the election to the Board as Vice-Chairman of George L. Kirkland.

8/6/09 10Q

Cisco CSCO: 10/5/09 8K announcing its offer to buy the Norwegian fimr Tandberg ASA for $3 bil.

9/23/09 Proxy Statement in connection with its Annual Meeting to be held 11/12/09.

9/11/09 10K.

9/9/09 8K Cisco appointed Arun Sarin, former CEO of Vodafone Group Plc, to its Board of Directors.

9/4/09 8K annoucing bonus payments for '09 fiscal year to: John T. Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, $2,031,000; Frank A. Calderoni, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, $900,000; Willaim Elfrink, Executive Vice President, Cisco Services and Chief Globalization Officer, $1,000,000; Randy Pond, Executive Vice President, Operations, Processes and Systems, $900,000; and Richard J. Justice, former Executive Vice President, Worldwide Operations and Business Development and current Executive Vice President – Executive Advisor, $750,000.

Coke KO: 7/30/09 10Q

Disney DIS: 9/22/09 Form S-4 Proxy and 9/16/09 Prospectus related to the takeover of Marvel.

8/31/09 8K announcing a merger between its subsidiary, Maverick Acquisition Sub, Inc., and its subsidiary, Maverick Merger Sub, LLC, a single member Delaware limited liability company and Marvel Entertainment, Inc.. As a result of the Merger, Marvel will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney. Each share of Marvel common stock will be converted into $30 in cash and 0.7452 shares of Disney common stock.

DuPont DD: 10/7/09 8K regulation FD disclosure regarding comments made by Executive Vice President Mark Vergnano who said DuPont would return to its level of '08 profitability in 2 and a half years.

9/29/09 and 8/13/09 8Ks announcing Nicholas C. Fanandakis, age 53, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer effective September 1, 2009 with an increase in annual salary from $387,708 to $500,000 and target short-term incentive award for 2009 will increase from $328,500 to $464,100. Mr. Fanandakis was named to his current position, Group Vice President- Applied BioSciences, in January 2008. Prior to that, he was vice president and general manager- DuPont Chemical Solutions Enterprise from September 2003 through September 2006 and vice president- Corporate Plans from October 2006 through December 2007. Jeffrey L. Keefer, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, will remain EVP and transition from the position of Chief Financial Officer to assume leadership responsibility for the DD's Performance Coatings business, corporate strategy development, Information Technology and overall cost and working capital productivity efforts effective November 1, 2009. Richard R. Goodmanson, EVP and Chief Operating Officer will retire effective September 30, 2009.

ExxonMobil XOM: 8/5/09 10Q

GE: 8/4/09 8K GE reached a settlement with the SEC & consented to a judgment of a fine of $50 million relating to four accounting matters arising in 2002 - 2003: the application of SFAS 133 to GE’s since-discontinued commercial paper hedging program and, separately, to certain swap derivatives where fees were paid or received at inception; a change in accounting for profits on spare parts in the commercial aviation engine business; and certain year-end transactions in the rail business.

Hewlett-Packard HPQ: 9/24/09 8K saying at its Securities Analyst Meeting, HPQ addressed how it is uniquely positioned to grow and expand in the global information technology market. “We expect the IT industry to return to growth in 2010 and believe that HP will outpace the market,” said Mark Hurd, CEO.

9/17/09 8K announcing the election of Marc L. Andreessen as a dierctor and chair of the Technology Committee of the Board. Andreessen is a co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, and a co-founder and chairman of Ning, Inc., an online platform for people to create their own social networks. Andreessen co-founded Opsware Inc. & served as chief technology officer of America Online, Inc. and was a co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation. Andreessen gets an retainer of $100,000, an annual equity retainer of $150,000, and $2,000 in cash for each Board meeting attended in excess of six per year. Mr. Andreessen also will be eligible to participate in the product matching portion of the HP Employee Giving Program under which each non-employee director may contribute up to $100,000 worth of HP products each year to a qualified charity by paying 25% of the list price of those products, with HP paying the remaining 75%. In addition, Mr. Andreessen will receive an annual retainer of $10,000 for service as the chair of the Technology Committee. HPQ also increased the number of HPQ directors from ten to eleven.

9/8/09 10-QA

Home Depot HD: 9/3/09 10-Q

8/26/09 8K announcing amendments to their By-Laws dealing with resignations of directors.

Intel INTC: 10/8/09 amended the 9/21/09 tender offer regarding exchange of some of its stock options with its employees.

9/15/09 8K Intel announcing Intel's consolidation of all of its major product divisions into the newly formed Intel Architecture Group, which will be co-managed by Sean Maloney and David (Dadi) Perlmutter, executive vice presidents. Maloney will be responsible for business and operations while Perlmutter will lead product development and architecture. Paul Otellini, CEO, will devote more time to corporate strategy and driving the company’s growth initiatives. Intel’s global manufacturing organization, the Technology and Manufacturing Group will now report to Andy Bryant, Intel’s chief administrative officer. Pat Gelsinger and Bruce Sewell, General Counsel, will leave INTC.

IBM: 9/8/09 8K announcing that IBM representatives will be meeting with a number of institutional investors through mid-September.

7/28/09 10Q

JPMorganChase JPM: 10/9/09 Various free writing prospectus re: issuance of securities.

Johnson & Johnson JNJ: 8/4/09 10Q

Kraft KFT: 10/6/09 8K announcing the promotion of Kim H. Jones, 49, to VP & Corp. Controller.

9/9/09 prospectus relating to Kraft's bid to take over Cadbury that was announced on 9/7/09.

9/9/09 8K announcing a strategic update, including a review of the company’s successful three-year turnaround plan.

8/5/09 10Q

McDonalds MCD: 9/25/09 8K announcing a quarterly cash dividend of .55 cents per share payable 12/15/09.

9/9/09 8K announcing that global comparable sales rose 2.2% in August and by segment performance was as follows: U.S. up 1.7%; Europe up 3.5%; andAsia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa declined 0.5%.

8/11/09 re: press release "McDonald’s Reports Global Comparable Sales Up 4.3% in July"

Merck MRK: 9/21/09 8K announcing that the acquisition by Sanofi-aventis of Merck’s 50percent interest in Merial Limited (Merial) has been completed. Sanofi-aventis acquired Merck’s interest in Merial for a cash consideration of $4 billion. Formed in 1997, Merial is a leading animal health company that was a 50/50 joint venture between Merck and sanofi-aventis and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of sanofi-aventis.

8/3/09 Sched 14A proxy material re: updated of acquisition of Schering-Plough.

Microsoft MSFT: 10/6/09 Proxy Statement regarding the Shareholders Annual Meeting to be held in Bellevue, Washington on 11/19/09.

9/11/09 8K James Cash to retire from Board of Directors. The
Harvard Business School professor and senior associate dean emeritus had served on the board since 2001. With Cash’s departure, the Microsoft board will have nine members: Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft; Steve Ballmer; Dina Dublon, former chief financial officer of JPMorgan Chase; Raymond V. Gilmartin, former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Merck & Co. Inc.; Reed Hastings, founder, chairman and CEO of Netflix Inc.; Maria M. Klawe, president, Harvey Mudd College; David F. Marquardt, general partner at August Capital; Charles H. Noski, former vice chairman of AT&T Corp.; and Dr. Helmut Panke, former chairman of the board of management at BMW AG.

8/24/09 S-8 Securities to be offered to employees in employee benefit plans

Pfizer PFE: 9/24/09 8K announcing the expansion of the Board to 14 members pursuant to the agreement to merge with Wyeth and electing two Wyeth directors to the newly expanded Board: Frances D. Fergusson and John P. Mascotte.

9/24/09 11-K Annual Report of Employee Stock Option Plan.

9/2/09 8K announcing an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle an investigation regarding off-label promotional practices related to Bextra, which Pfizer withdrew from the market in 2005 and other DOJ investigations involving off-label promotional practices concerning Zyvox, Geodon and Lyrica, and allegations related to payments to healthcare professionals involving these and nine other Pfizer medicines. Pfizer previously disclosed a related $2.3 billion charge to its fourth-quarter and full-year 2008 earnings in connection with the DOJ agreement in principle on January 26, 2009. PFE has reached agreements with attorneys general in 432 states to settle state civil consumer protection allegations regarding promotional practices concerning Geodon. PFE will pay a total of $33 million to the settling states.

Procter & Gamble PG: 11K Annual Report of Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

9/10/09 8K confirmed its fiscal year 2010 and July – September quarter outlook for organic sales growth. The company also stated it expects to return to organic sales growth in the October – December quarter compared to prior year levels, following two quarters of organic sales declines. P&G also updated earnings per share guidance to include the anticipated impacts from the Pharmaceutical divestiture, which was announced on August 24, 2009. For fiscal year 2010, P&G confirmed previous guidance for organic sales growth of one to three percent. P&G expects net sales in the range of flat to up three percent versus prior year levels, which includes a foreign exchange impact of zero to minus one percent. P&G now expects fiscal 2010 earnings per share in the range of $3.99 to $4.12 per share. This includes a one-time net increase in earnings of $0.44 per share from the sale of the Pharmaceutical business, which will be partially offset by $0.10 to $0.12 per share of earnings dilution related to the transaction.

8/28/09 S-8 Securities to employees and 8/28 8K annoucning public offering of $500,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 3.150% Notes due 2015.
Also a PG subsidiary, Procter & Gamble International Funding SCA issued $1,000,000,000 aggregate principal amount of 1.350% Notes due 2011.

3M MMM: 8/5/09 3M contributed 8,329,862 shares of its common stock with a corresponding dollar value of approximately $600 million to its defined benefit pension plan, the 3M Employee Retirement Income Plan, made from treasury stock.

Travelers TRV: 8/5/09 10Q/A Amended 10Q

United Technologies UTX: 7/24/09 10Q

Verizon Communications Inc. VZ: 8K 9/11/09 8K announcing VZ's cash flow and balance sheet are strong, and VZ recently increased its dividend for the third consecutive year. VZ is not planning for any economic improvements in the second half of 2009. Verizon expects that economic conditions will continue to pressure revenues and margins in the second half of 2009, particularly in its Wireline segment. VZ expects to add one million wireless customers per quarter for the next several quarters.
The company expects to achieve its stated Alltel cost synergy targets & greater cash flow from operations in the second half of 2009 compared to the first half of 2009.

9/4/09 8K VZ raised its quarterly dividend 3.3% to 47.5 Cents per Share. This is the third consecutive year that VZ has approved a quarterly dividend increase in September.

9/4/09 8K annoucning retirement of Dennis F. Strigl, President and Chief Operating Officer of Verizon Communications Inc.

Wal-Mart WMT: 8K 9/18 Pricing agreement re: the 9/16 filed prospectus relating to $1 bil of Euro Note Offering at 4.875%

9/14/09 Prospectus re debt securities of $364,600,000

9/9/09 10Q

8/13/09 8K re 7/31/09 2Q report of earnings