The R&D Market Pulse Index for the week ending September 29, 2017 closed at 3,507.48 for the 25 companies included. The Index was up 1.24 percent (or 42.86 basis points) over the week ending September 22, 2017. Thirteen R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.05 percent (GlaxoSmithKline) to 4.72 percent (Bayer AG). Twelve R&D Index companies lost value last week from -0.03 percent (IBM) to -2.23% (Volkswagen).
The U.S. GDP grew at an annualized rate of 3.1 percent in the second quarter, according to a report released by the Commerce Dept. last week. This rate is stronger than the previously expected 3.0% and marks the strongest growth in two years. Analysts expect the economy to grow at a rate between 2 percent and 3 percent in the third quarter and steady growth following.
The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education (THE) college rankings for 2017 were announced last week with Harvard, Columbia, MIT, Stanford and Duke taking the top five spots. The rankings assess colleges in outcomes, resources, engagement and environment. The top public school was UCLA which was ranked 25th behind 24 private schools. Only 21 public schools made it into the top 100 highest ranked colleges.
R&D Index member Microsoft last week announced a new artificial intelligence (AI) product aimed at competing with IBM’s (also an R&D Index member) Watson AI products for everyday business needs. Microsoft’s product will be one of a series of customizable AI products running on the company’s Azure cloud-computing platform. While Watson products target specific industries, Microsoft claims its new AI products address fundamental business needs.
R&D Index member Merck announced last week that it was discontinuing development of its new hepatitis C treatment, citing questionable effectiveness and an abundance of existing treatments including its own Zepatier drug. Earlier this year, R&D Index member Johnson & Johnson also discontinued its development of a hepatitis C drug citing non-competitive results.
China announced last Thursday new rules for gradually escalating quotas for pure electric cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles by 2019, hoping to curb air pollution and increase a domestic green-car industry. Anticipating these moves, Ford, Renault-Nissan, Volkswagen and General Motors have all set up joint ventures with Chinese auto manufacturers, earlier this year. In a partial concession to foreign car manufacturers, China agreed to delay implementation of these new regulations until 2019, rather than 2018 with a minimum of 10 percent of a company’s production consisting of green-car products, which increases in following years.
R&D Index Week Ending September 29, 2017
| Ticker | Exchange | 2017 R&D billions$ | 09/22/17 | 09/29/17 | 9/29/17 to 9/22/17 | 9/29/17 to 1/1/17 | |
| Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 17,774 | 955.10 | 961.35 | 0.65% | 28.20% |
| Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 15,845 | 943.26 | 973.72 | 3.23% | 22.87% |
| Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,987 | 74.41 | 74.49 | 0.11% | 19.87% |
| Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,499 | 37.18 | 38.08 | 2.42% | 4.99% |
| Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 11,506 | 151.89 | 154.12 | 1.47% | 33.07% |
| Volkswagen AG | VLKAY | OTC | 11,260 | 34.57 | 33.80 | -2.23% | 17.85% |
| Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 10,174 | 32.02 | 32.00 | -0.06% | 12.16% |
| Toyota | TM | NYSE | 9,170 | 120.63 | 119.17 | -1.21% | 1.68% |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 9,060 | 131.39 | 130.01 | -1.05% | 12.85% |
| Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 7,870 | 86.16 | 85.85 | -0.36% | 17.86% |
| General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,468 | 39.42 | 40.38 | 2.44% | 15.90% |
| Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,288 | 35.96 | 35.70 | -0.72% | 9.91% |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,942 | 63.36 | 63.74 | 0.60% | 9.07% |
| Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,827 | 33.37 | 33.63 | 0.78% | 11.28% |
| Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 6,723 | 52.09 | 51.84 | -0.48% | -20.49% |
| Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 6,702 | 48.16 | 48.35 | 0.39% | 25.75% |
| Honda | HMC | NYSE | 6,519 | 29.91 | 29.56 | -1.17% | 1.27% |
| Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 6,363 | 33.95 | 33.88 | -0.21% | 24.01% |
| Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 5,759 | 65.13 | 64.03 | -1.69% | 8.77% |
| Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 5,084 | 66.60 | 67.47 | 1.31% | -4.60% |
| Bayer AG | BAYN | XETRA | 4,880 | 110.10 | 115.30 | 4.72% | 16.31% |
| Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,755 | 50.34 | 49.79 | -1.09% | 23.12% |
| IBM | IBM | NYSE | 4,628 | 145.13 | 145.08 | -0.03% | -12.60% |
| GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 4,508 | 40.58 | 40.60 | 0.05% | 5.43% |
| Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 4,489 | 83.91 | 85.54 | 1.94% | 16.30% |
| Total | 209,080 | 3,464.62 | 3,507.48 | 1.24% | 17.61% | ||
| Biopharmaceutical | 732.90 | 736.44 | 0.48% | 14.12% | |||
| Automotive | 291.13 | 290.38 | -0.26% | 3.47% | |||
| ICT | 1,485.49 | 1,519.31 | 2.28% | 16.28% | |||
About the R&D Market Pulse 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 2017 were selected based on the latest listings from Schonfeld & Associates’ June 2017 R&D Ratios & Budgets. These 25 companies include pharmaceutical (11 companies), automotive (5), ICT (8) and conglomerate (1) organizations who invested a cumulative total of more than $209 billion in R&D in 2017, or approximately 10% of all the R&D spent in the world by government, industries and academia combined, according to R&D Magazine’s 2017 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 Amazon, Alphabet/Google, Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Volkswagen AG, Roche Pharma, Toyota, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, General Motors, Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cisco, Qualcomm, Oracle, Honda Motor Company, Astra Zeneca plc, Merck & Company, Daimler, Bayer AG, Sanofi SA, IBM, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly Co. 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 $4.5 and $17 billion annually on their R&D efforts.
