EXXON BREAKS ALL RECORDS!

While most of us spent large portions of 2007 wondering just how high gasoline prices could go, and shuddering at reports of no end in sight, parties invested in the fortunes of Exxon Mobil might have had slightly different reactions.

Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, shattered records today by announcing a $40.6 billion profit for 2007. That figure represents the largest annual profit ever recorded by a U.S. company. The oil company also broke the record for the largest quarterly profit in history, earning a net income of $11.7 billion during the fourth quarter of last year.

Exxon was merely shadow boxing with the profit records, besting its own marks of $39.5 billion earned in 2006, and $10.71 billion for Q4 in 2005. The company also broke its own record for total sales, amassing more than $404.5 billion in 2007.