The R&D Index: Market Watch for the week ending March 24, 2017 closed at 1,634.30 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was down -0.67% (or 10.98 basis points) over the week ending March 17, 2017. Eight R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.09% (GlaxoSmithKline) to 2.02% (Astra Zeneca). Sixteen R&D Index companies lost value last week from -0.31% (Intel) to -6.89% (Ford Motor). One company, Siemens, remained unchanged for the week at 124.35.
Manufacturing output rose in February for the second straight month. Driving these figures were orders for civilian aircraft and parts which rose 47% in February, followed by an 83% rise in January. Excluding these transportation trends, regular manufacturing orders only rose 0.1% in February, after a 0.1% decline in January.
President Trump signed a $19.5 billion authorization bill last week for NASA, which is the first new authorization bill since 2010. The bill supports the agency’s SLS and Orion programs and states that a human mission to Mars is now a goal for the agency, although no added funding for Mars programs was included. Programs receiving support in the bill included the James Webb Space Telescope, the Mars 2020 rover and a probe to study the Jovian moon, Europa. Another program was solicited to review concepts to remove space junk from orbit.
Vice President Mike Pence also became the chair of a newly created National Space Council, last activated during President George H.W. Bush’s administration.
A group of prominent life science researchers last week called for changes in the guidelines to address new biological entities being created in labs that may share similar characteristics to embryos. Current guidelines limit research on human embryos past 14 days of development.
The new entities, identified at Harvard and Rockefeller Universities, involve self-organizing cells similar to an embryo are classified as “synthetic human entities with embryo-like features” (SHEEFs).
R&D Index member Intel announced last week that it has started shipping it long-anticipated new electronic storage drives, termed 3D XPoint.
The new technology bridges the gap between fast conventional memory and flash memory used for longer-term storage. The new technology is expected to find use in artificial intelligence applications and can be manufactured in conventional chip fabrication facilities at reasonable costs and yields, according to Intel.
Intel also announced last week that it had acquired Israeli startup Mobileye, which manufactures chips and software for self-driving cars. Analysts stated that Intel could integrate Mobileye’s technology into its existing devices for use in self-driving applications.
R&D Index Week Ending March 24, 2017
| Ticker | Exchange | 2015 R&D billions$ | 03/17/17 | 03/24/17 | 3/24/17 to 3/17/17 | 3/24/17 to 1/1/16 | ||
| 1 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 12,448 | 64.87 | 64.98 | 0.17% | 17.12% |
| 2 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 12,128 | 35.27 | 35.16 | -0.31% | 2.06% |
| 3 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 10,242 | 31.72 | 31.91 | 0.60% | -7.43% |
| 4 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 9,112 | 112.21 | 111.36 | -0.75% | -9.49% |
| 5 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 9,046 | 128.06 | 125.48 | -2.01% | 22.16% |
| 6 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,935 | 75.55 | 74.37 | -1.56% | -13.60% |
| 7 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 8,397 | 139.91 | 140.64 | 0.52% | 33.61% |
| 8 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,690 | 34.32 | 34.00 | -0.93% | 4.97% |
| 9 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,500 | 36.33 | 34.56 | -4.87% | 1.62% |
| 10 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 6,704 | 63.90 | 63.18 | -1.13% | 19.61% |
| 11 | Ford Motor | F | NYSE | 6,700 | 12.48 | 11.62 | -6.89% | -17.53% |
| 12 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,411 | 34.23 | 34.08 | -0.44% | 25.48% |
| 13 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 6,042 | 45.66 | 44.65 | -2.21% | 22.23% |
| 14 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,997 | 30.69 | 31.31 | 2.02% | -7.78% |
| 15 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 5,990 | 31.04 | 30.78 | -0.84% | -3.60% |
| 16 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 5,920 | 56.29 | 55.89 | -0.71% | -18.76% |
| 17 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,833 | 57.55 | 56.92 | -1.09% | 13.89% |
| 18 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 5,519 | 44.30 | 44.63 | 0.74% | 4.64% |
| 19 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 5,331 | 83.96 | 84.18 | 0.26% | -0.07% |
| 20 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 5,250 | 42.27 | 42.31 | 0.09% | 4.86% |
| 21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,247 | 175.65 | 173.83 | -1.03% | 26.35% |
| 22 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 5,169 | 71.16 | 70.56 | -0.84% | -9.42% |
| 23 | Siemens | SIE | XETRA | 4,929 | 124.35 | 124.35 | 0.00% | 38.35% |
| 24 | Bayer AG | BAYN | XETRA | 4,649 | 106.85 | 107.00 | 0.14% | -7.92% |
| 25 | Ericsson | ERIC | NASDAQ | 4,124 | 6.66 | 6.55 | -1.65% | -31.84% |
| Total | 175,313 | 1645.28 | 1634.30 | -0.67% | 7.41% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 697.91 | 694.26 | -0.52% | -0.06% | ||||
| Automotive | 263.22 | 258.88 | -1.65% | -7.86% | ||||
| ICT | 553.14 | 550.26 | -0.52% | 23.26% | ||||
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.
