ExxonMobil by itself is now a larger company than Citigroup,Bank of America, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo,Goldman Sachs,Morgan Stanley and Bank of New York COMBINED.
That's right, COMBINED. Exxon market cap: $400 billion. All the above financials combined: $390 billion.
ExxonMobil is the largest stock in the S&P 500. Wal-Mart, the nearest competitor, is a little more than half that size. ExxonMobil has been notably outperforming the market recently. Since early September, Exxon has been up about 5 percent, while the S&P 500 has been down 30 percent.
Financials have been down 45 percent in that time period. Why is Exxon doing so much better than the rest of the market, and even better than energy stocks in general (the S&P energy sector is down about 25 percent in the same period)?
1) Safe haven
2) Great balance sheet
3) Not going anywhere
