Exxon dethrones Wal-Mart atop Fortune 500

General Electric slipped two rungs to No. 7, while its revenue rose 3.1 percent to $157.153 billion. Citigroup and American International Group followed at Nos. 8 and 9, holding their places from 2005.

International Business Machines Corp. held onto the last spot in the top 10, although its revenues fell by 5.4 percent to $91.134 billion.

In general, 2005 treated the top U.S. companies to big revenues and profits. The 500 brought in a combined $9.1 trillion in revenue, a 10.2 percent increase over last year, and $610 billion in profits, record numbers on both accounts.

Low long-term interest rates, which spurred consumer spending, and a growing global economy helped the companies to hit those records. The global economy grew by 4.25 percent, led by China, India and a recovering Japan.

"We really are a one world economy," said Cait Murphy, assistant managing editor at Fortune. "If the global economic growth is strong, then the 500 will do well, because they have substantial operations and sales abroad."

Only three of the 47 industry groups that the magazine tracks lost money last year: the airline, motor vehicles and building materials industries.

The seven airline companies on the list lost a total of $28.4 billion last year. Only Southwest Airlines Co. was profitable. Ten of the 16 motor vehicle companies were profitable, but big losses from GM and Delphi Corp. weighed down the sector.

Pipelines, Internet services and retailing, petroleum refining and mining-crude oil production were the fastest-growing industries of 2005.

Internet services and retailing companies turned in a 125.9 percent increase in profits, prompting the magazine to create a new industry category. The most notable newcomers to the 500 fell into that category, with Google Inc. debuting at No. 353, Yahoo! Inc. at No. 412 and eBay Inc. at No. 458. The three combined for $5.7 billion in profits.

Meanwhile, Gateway Inc. failed to make the list this year after appearing on it since 1993. Last year, the company slid in at No. 495.

"Gateway hasn't fully recovered from the dot-com bust," Murphy said.

MORE FROM U.S. BUSINESS

U.S. business Section Front

Why Tiger’s endorsement empire is safe Celebrity lawyer charged in $1B Ponzi scheme Deadly fireball sparks U.S. to give record fine Recalled cat food sickens 21 cats AIG slashes amount it owes U.S. by $25 billion Source: GE, Comcast reach NBCU deal The Big Money: Facebook 50 BofA aims to clearly spell out credit card terms Employers play Dr. Mom to limit flu impact Can newspapers get rich by shunning Google? U.S. business Section Front   Add U.S. business headlines to your news reader: