The R&D Index: Market Watch for the week ending January 6, 2017 closed at 1,573.65 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was up 1.78% (or 27.53 basis points) over the week ending December 30, 2016. Twenty-two R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.03% (Cisco) to 4.39% (Honda). Two R&D Index companies lost value last week—Sanofi (-0.30%) and Siemens (-0.73%). Oracle was unchanged for the week at 38.45.
On Friday, the U.S. Dept. of Labor released its jobs report for December with 156,000 new seasonally adjusted jobs being created, down from the 178,000 added in November. The unemployment rate similarly increased slightly from 4.6% in November to 4.7% in December. The increasing jobs rates for 2016 and the low unemployment rates, however resulted in employers having to pay more for the talented people they need and their overall wages increased in December by 2.9% over the rate in December 2015. This was the best annual rate increase since 2009 and significantly higher than the average 2.0% rate increases seen earlier in the recovery from the Great Recession.
The California legislature last week hired former U.S. Attorney General (in the Obama Administration) Eric Holder to help in possible upcoming legal battles between the Trump Administration and California, especially in the areas regarding immigration and climate change. The California governor Jerry Brown and the legislature are both controlled by democrats. California’s anticipatory response is meant to protect environmental policies it has put in place. California has the largest R&D budget of any state, with more than $500 million spent in FY2015 – nearly 40% more than second place New York, according to the latest National Science Foundation (NSF) report.
According to automotive sales tracker, Autodata, a surge in December sales pushed the number of cars and trucks sold in the U.S. in 2016 to a record high for the seventh year in a row. 17.6 million cars and trucks sold in 2016 exceeded the 17.5 million sold in 2015. Sales were up 3% in December due primarily to increased truck sales. R&D Index members GM, Toyota and Ford all reported increased sales in December. Analysts forecasts for 2017 range from 16.8 to 17.3 million, a slight drop from the sales total for 2016.
Fiat Chrysler announced last week that it was investing $1 billion to expand factories in Ohio and Michigan and to create 2,000 jobs in the U.S. Two weeks ago, Ford rescinded plans to build an automotive factory in Mexico, stating instead that it will expand auto plants in Michigan, following criticisms by Trump, who has since also criticized GM and Toyota plans to expand their production capabilities in Mexico.
About the R&D Index
R&D Magazine’s R&D Index is a weekly stock market summary of the top international companies involved in research and development. The top 25 industrial spenders of R&D in 2015 were selected based on the latest listings from Schonfeld & Associates’ June 2016 R&D Ratios & Budgets. These 25 companies include pharmaceutical (11 companies), automotive (5), ICT (7) and conglomerate (2) organizations who invested a cumulative total of more than $175 billion in R&D in 2015, or approximately 11% of all the R&D spent in the world by government, industries and academia combined, according to R&D Magazine’s 2016 Global R&D Funding Forecast. The stock prices used in the R&D Index are tabulated from NASDAQ, NYSE, XETRA and OTC common stock prices (in U.S. dollars) for the companies selected at the close of stock trading business on the Friday preceding the publication of the R&D Index in R&D Magazine’s R&D Daily eNewsletter.
The companies used in the R&D Index include Microsoft, Intel, Roche Holdings, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Toyota Motor, General Motors, Merck & Co., Ford Motor, Cisco, Apple Computer, Sanofi SA, Qualcomm, IBM, Astra Zeneca plc, Honda Motor, Daimler, Oracle, GlaxoSmithKline, Siemens, Eli Lilly Co., Ericsson, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Bayer AG. Stock prices are based on those stocks traded on the U.S. exchanges. R&D Index trends (in the stock prices) are just one indicator of the amount of capital available to these high-technology companies to invest in R&D and should not be implied to indicate the absolute value of R&D investments made by these organizations. The companies chosen for the R&D Index have very large sophisticated internal and global R&D organizations with each company investing between $4.1 and $12.4 billion annually on their R&D efforts.
Ticker | Exchange | 2015 R&D billions$ | 12/30/16 | 01/06/17 | 1/6/17 to 12/30/16 | 1/6/17 to 1/1/16 | ||
1 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 12,448 | 62.14 | 62.84 | 1.13% | 13.27% |
2 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 12,128 | 36.27 | 36.48 | 0.58% | 5.89% |
3 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 10,242 | 28.53 | 29.78 | 4.38% | -13.61% |
4 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 9,112 | 117.20 | 120.13 | 2.50% | -2.37% |
5 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 9,046 | 115.21 | 116.30 | 0.95% | 13.22% |
6 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,935 | 72.84 | 73.49 | 0.89% | -14.63% |
7 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 8,397 | 115.82 | 117.91 | 1.80% | 12.02% |
8 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,690 | 32.48 | 33.48 | 3.08% | 3.37% |
9 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,500 | 34.84 | 35.99 | 3.30% | 5.82% |
10 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 6,704 | 58.87 | 60.27 | 2.38% | 14.10% |
11 | Ford Motor | F | NYSE | 6,700 | 12.13 | 12.76 | 5.19% | -9.44% |
12 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,411 | 30.22 | 30.23 | 0.03% | 11.30% |
13 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 6,042 | 38.45 | 38.45 | 0.00% | 5.26% |
14 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,997 | 27.32 | 28.43 | 4.06% | -16.26% |
15 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 5,990 | 29.19 | 30.47 | 4.39% | -4.57% |
16 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 5,920 | 58.44 | 59.95 | 2.58% | -12.86% |
17 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,833 | 65.20 | 65.53 | 0.51% | 31.11% |
18 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 5,519 | 40.44 | 40.32 | -0.30% | -5.46% |
19 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 5,331 | 73.55 | 75.67 | 2.88% | -10.17% |
20 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 5,250 | 38.51 | 39.38 | 2.26% | -2.40% |
21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,247 | 165.99 | 169.53 | 2.13% | 23.22% |
22 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 5,169 | 70.72 | 72.04 | 1.87% | -7.52% |
23 | Siemens | SIE | XETRA | 4,929 | 116.80 | 115.95 | -0.73% | 29.00% |
24 | Bayer AG | BAYN | XETRA | 4,649 | 99.13 | 102.40 | 3.30% | -11.88% |
25 | Ericsson | ERIC | NASDAQ | 4,124 | 5.83 | 5.87 | 0.69% | -38.92% |
Total | 175,313 | 1546.12 | 1573.65 | 1.78% | 3.42% | |||
Biopharmaceutical | 645.32 | 659.47 | 2.19% | -5.07% | ||||
Automotive | 264.08 | 271.39 | 2.77% | -3.41% | ||||
ICT | 514.09 | 520.97 | 1.33% | 16.70% |