Net worth(s)

In yet another sign of the global power shift away from the Atlantic and toward the Pacific, China's flagship sovereign wealth fund, PetroChina, has become the world's largest company by market value.^*

The oil giant closed out its first day of trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange at 44 yuan per share, putting the company's total market value at just under $1 trillion USD — a tad below Canada's annual GDP and roughly equivalent to India's. Taking up the second violin chair on the world's-most-valuable list is ExxonMobil, worth about $480 billion USD, or $90 a share (NYSE). And of the five most valuable firms on earth, three are Chinese — PetroChina at No. 1, China Mobile at No. 4, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China at No. 5. (General Electric rounds out the top five at No. 3.)

Even if ExxonMobil is "more profitable, better managed, and richer in assets," as The Economist reports, and PetroChina's IPO is inflated and unreflective of its actual market value, the $500-billion gap is still a major indicator of the shifting global winds.

(Hint: the weather vane points east.)

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^* Market value does not reflect a firm's total assets, market capitalization, or "size." Measured in terms of assets, western banking giant Citigroup dominates, though the recently-privatized Japan Post savings system is probably worth more. In terms of market capitalization — or "physical stuff," as it were — GE is king.