What the Indianapolis 500 means to U.S. auto racing, FORTUNE'S 500 means to U.S. industry. Last week the magazine's tenth annual rating of the nation's leading corporations showed that American business really went off to the races in 1963.
Profits of the 500 biggest industrial firms jumped more than 10% to $14.8 billion, accounting for 55% of the 1963 earnings of all 1,200,000 U.S. corporations. The two largest firms brought home more than one-sixth of the 500's earnings: General Motors earned $1.6 billion on sales of $16.5 billion, and Standard Oil (N.J.) became the only other U.S. manufacturer to join the...
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