The R&D Index: Market Watch for the week ending April 14, 2017 closed at 1,605.89 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was down -1.06% (or -16.89 basis points) over the week ending April 14, 2017. Twenty R&D Index companies lost value last week from -0.53% (Astra Zeneca) to -6.27% (Qualcomm). Four R&D Index companies gained value last week, from 0.06% (Johnson & Johnson) to 1.87% (Sanofi SA) – Roche Pharma remained unchanged for the week at 31.92.
Economists are increasingly scaling back on their growth forecasts (GDP). Trump’s campaign promises for medical care, corporate tax relief and major infrastructure programs are appearing to be unlikely to occur in 2017. And programs planned for 2018 are too far away to put into forecasts. In December, the consensus economic forecast for Q1 2017 was 2.3%. This dropped to 1.9% in March and has fallen further in April to 1.4%. Job growth forecasts have followed a similar route from the 187,000 monthly rate forecast in March to now just 167,000/month through the end of 2017. Consumer confidence values have also dropped over the past six months siting “undue optimism” concerning the speed at which government officials can make changes.
Technology stocks hit a 10-session losing streak last week, the longest losing streak in nearly five years. Five of the top ten most traded tech stocks are R&D Index members—Microsoft, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco and Pfizer. However the combined total loss for those 10 losing sessions was just 2% and analysts note that most tech companies are due to release their 1Q 2017 results shortly which should show strong results and support stock recoveries.
Inflation results passed the Fed’s 2% target goal for the first time in nearly five years, according to several readings. Economists are careful to note that there is very little chance of the inflation rate rising very much above the current level. Bond yields are also just 2.3% (10 year) and a rising inflation rate would be noted in their yield rates rising.
OPEC members noted last week that its output kept falling in March as members tightened their compliance to OPEC-agreed upon cuts. The winner in these events has been U.S. producers who have benefitted from the rising prices without the reticent production cuts.
Toshiba, last week, officially expressed doubt that it can survive in light of the huge, multi-billion dollar losses of its Westinghouse nuclear subsidiary and an accounting scandle in 2015.
R&D Index Week Ending April 14, 2017 |
Ticker | Exchange | 2015 R&D billions$ | 04/07/17 | 04/14/15 | 4/14/17 to 4/7/17 | 4/14/17 to 1/1/16 | ||
1 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 12,448 | 65.68 | 64.98 | -1.07% | 17.12% |
2 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 12,128 | 36.03 | 35.25 | -2.16% | 2.32% |
3 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 10,242 | 31.92 | 31.92 | 0.00% | -7.40% |
4 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 9,112 | 105.91 | 104.18 | -1.63% | -15.33% |
5 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 9,046 | 124.92 | 124.99 | 0.06% | 21.68% |
6 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,935 | 73.72 | 73.15 | -0.77% | -15.02% |
7 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 8,397 | 143.34 | 141.05 | -1.60% | 34.00% |
8 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,690 | 34.10 | 33.88 | -0.65% | 4.60% |
9 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,500 | 33.71 | 33.39 | -0.95% | -1.86% |
10 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 6,704 | 63.13 | 62.61 | -0.82% | 18.53% |
11 | Ford Motor | F | NYSE | 6,700 | 11.23 | 11.11 | -1.07% | -21.15% |
12 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,411 | 32.96 | 32.42 | -1.64% | 19.37% |
13 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 6,042 | 44.29 | 44.00 | -0.65% | 20.45% |
14 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,997 | 30.30 | 30.14 | -0.53% | -11.22% |
15 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 5,990 | 28.77 | 28.45 | -1.11% | -10.90% |
16 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 5,920 | 53.42 | 52.83 | -1.10% | -23.21% |
17 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,833 | 56.32 | 52.79 | -6.27% | 5.62% |
18 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 5,519 | 44.81 | 45.65 | 1.87% | 7.03% |
19 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 5,331 | 85.32 | 85.88 | 0.66% | 1.95% |
20 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 5,250 | 41.47 | 41.81 | 0.82% | 3.62% |
21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,247 | 172.14 | 169.53 | -1.52% | 23.22% |
22 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 5,169 | 67.00 | 66.42 | -0.87% | -14.74% |
23 | Siemens | SIE | XETRA | 4,929 | 128.40 | 126.55 | -1.44% | 40.80% |
24 | Bayer AG | BAYN | XETRA | 4,649 | 107.50 | 106.55 | -0.88% | -8.30% |
25 | Ericsson | ERIC | NASDAQ | 4,124 | 6.47 | 6.36 | -1.70% | -33.82% |
Total | 175,313 | 1622.86 | 1605.89 | -1.06% | 5.54% | |||
Biopharmaceutical | 690.61 | 689.41 | -0.17% | -0.76% | ||||
Automotive | 246.62 | 243.55 | -1.24% | -15.72% | ||||
ICT | 550.76 | 540.02 | -1.95% | 20.96% |
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.