This is Bob Doughty with the VOA Special English EconomicsReport.

For fifty years, the business magazine Fortune has published alist of the five-hundred biggest companies in the United States. Thenew Fortune five-hundred list has come out. For the third year, themagazine names Wal-Mart the biggest company in America.

Wal-Mart is known for low prices in its stores. The company hadsales of about two-hundred-fifty-nine-thousand-million dollars lastyear. Wal-Mart is first on the Fortune five-hundred list by revenue,or the total amount of money it received. Second is Exxon Mobil.

But Exxon Mobil is first in profit among the five-hundredcompanies listed by Fortune magazine. The company recorded earningsof more than twenty-one-thousand-million dollars intwo-thousand-three.

Wal-Mart had a profit of nine-thousand-million dollars. That putsWal-Mart in eighth place on the list of the most profitablecompanies in America.

The new Fortune five-hundred list rates General Motors as thethird largest company in the nation, down from second place lastyear. The Ford Motor Company is fourth. And fifth is GeneralElectric.

Two more oil companies are sixth and seventh on the list. LikeExxon Mobil, high oil prices helped sales at ChevronTexaco andConocoPhillips last year.

Citigroup is eighth on the Fortune five-hundred list by revenue.But the financial services company is second in profits. Citigrouprecorded earnings of nearly eighteen-thousand-million dollars lastyear.

Ninth on the Fortune five-hundred list is International BusinessMachines, the computer maker known as I.B.M. And the tenth biggestmoney-maker in the United States is the insurance company AmericanInternational Group, or A.I.G.

The Fortune five-hundred list is part of American businessculture. But only public companies appear on the list. Publiccompanies sell their shares of ownership on a stock exchange to anyinvestor. They must also release their financial information.

Together, the largest American companies had record sales lastyear. Low interest rates meant that people and businesses had moremoney to spend. Fortune also notes the tax cuts and spendingincreases by the Bush administration. The magazine says fewobservers had expected such a widespread profit recovery followingtwo years of poor results.

This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by MarioRitter. This is Bob Doughty.