Stock Market Power Rankings: Save Us, Amazon

Each week, I'm ranking the biggest companies that trade on U.S. exchanges based on their size ( market capitalization), momentum (total return over the past year), and recent news. Before we get to the rankings, a quick word on a major player.

There was a time when retailers stayed in their lanes. Traditional brick-and-mortar chains gobbled up the early risers on Black Friday, while Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and its less sophisticated peers planted their digital flags on Cyber Monday. A lot has changed, of course. Amazon was all over Black Friday, and it's been offering Black Friday Deals since the month began.

The market's been swinging a bag of coal around lately, and sometimes the best way to end a Wall Street dry spell is to see that consumers are out buying stuff, even when the same can't be said about investors. That's where Amazon can step in.