Currently, economy stands at a point where no clear signs indicate a clear expansion or contraction; however, the trends show a small rise of the economy. Chevron is the four ranking and ExxonMobil is first the indicators stage that the oil and gas industries are the leading index in 2007. The positive contributors – beginning with the largest positive contributor – were vendor performance, building permits, interest rate spread, and stock prices. (The Conference Board). On the other hand, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' most recent Manufacturing Barometer survey, a large percentage of respondents, compared to last quarter, are optimistic about the world economy and only 54 percent, compared to 71 percent last quarter, are confident about the U.S. economy. The leading source of this uncertainty is concern over oil and energy prices. Therefore, a representative fact of the unclear stage of the economy, at this point, is that the U.S. leading index decreased 0.7 percent, the coincident index decreased 0.1 percent and the lagging index increased 0.2 percent in September (The Conference Board). The Oil and Gas industry is very competitive.
Chevron and Exxon's financial situations, observed their current ratio, quick ratio, debt/equity ratio, ROA, and ROE. Current Ratio is an indication of a company's ability to meet short-term debt obligations, you can see that ExxonMobil current ratio is better than industry average; therefore, Exxon has to have good short-term financial strength. Quick ratio is a measure of a company's liquidity and ability to meet its obligations. In additional, Exxon's financial strength is higher than the industry. Return on Asset is a useful indicator of how profitable a company is relative to its total a ...