"FORTUNE'S" NEW LIST of the 500 biggest U.S. industrial corporations in 1958 showed some changes in the top ten. Chrysler, which was sixth in 1957, dropped to eleventh; Bethlehem Steel, which was ninth, dropped to twelfth. Newcomers: Texaco and Western Electric. The top ten: G.M. ($9.5 billion in sales), Jersey Standard ($7.5 billion), Ford ($4.1 billion), G.E. ($4.1 billion, and up a notch from '57), U.S. Steel ($3.5 billion, down a notch), Socony Mobil Oil ($2.9 billion), Gulf Oil ($2.8 billion), Swift ($2.6 billion), Texaco ($2.3 billion), Western Electric ($2.2 billion).

HOWARD HUGHES, whose Hughes Tool Co. controls TWA, plans to sell six TWA jets on order to Pan Am to ease financial squeeze. The deal: for $40 million, Hughes Tool will turn over six new long-range Boeing 707s to Pan Am, beginning in December. Hughes will also get an option to buy Pan Am's six shorter-range 707s for $32-to-$33 million--if it can raise the cash. Hughes has a $320 million commitment to buy 63 jets for TWA. Even though TWA has finally climbed into the black, Hughes has trouble raising that much money.

HIGHEST DIVIDENDS EVER are expected this year. Standard & Poor's found that in June there were 82 dividend boosts (v. 55 a year ago), only four cuts (v. 58) and 13 omissions (v. 40). It believes that "an unusually large number of extras will be voted near the close of the year, making 1959 the best year on record."

BIGGEST ANTITRUST WAR of the year will be waged against food industry giants, for gobbling up smaller companies. FTC complains that supermarket chains have acquired 1,678 stores in past four years (v. only 560 stores in six years before that). Eight of FTC's largest merger cases involve groups of supermarkets, dairies or food processors. Among them: Kroger, National Tea, National Dairy, Borden, Pillsbury.

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