President Barack Obama hosted the chief executives of Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), Nucor Corp. (NUE) and Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) for lunch at the White House Friday, the administration said in a statement.

The lunch, which the White House announced late Thursday without identifying the president's guests, is part of the administration's effort to reach out to the business community, and follows a series of other meetings between officials and executives.

The president is due to discuss the economy and the $1 billion Cash-for-Clunkers program at 1:15 p.m. EDT, following the lunch.

Last month, Obama had lunch with the CEOs of Honeywell International Inc. (HON), Coca-Cola Co. (KO), Xerox Corp. (XRX) and AT&T Inc. (T).

The guests at Friday's luncheon were Ivan Seidenberg, CEO of Verizon and chairman of the Business Roundtable, Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart, Dan DiMicco, CEO of Nucor, and Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks.

-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com