The R&D Index for the week ending February 15, 2019 closed at 4,311.02 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was up 1.78% (or 75.28 basis points) from the week ending February 8, 2019. The stock of 24 R&D Index members gained value from 0.01% (Apple Computer) to 10.56% (Astra Zeneca). The stock of one R&D Index member lost value, Sanofi SA (-0.21%).
Airbus SE announced last week that it was stopping production of its A380 superjumbo commercial airliner. The last 14 aircraft are now scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2021. Airbus invested more than $16 billion in developing the A380 which first flew in 2007. Less than 300 aircraft will have been delivered when production ends. Demand for the A380 was overwhelmed by the development of smaller, more fuel-efficient aircraft, such as Boeing’s 787. Airbus stock rose nearly 3% following the announcement. Airbus invests about $2.5 billion annually in R&D.
President Trump signed an executive order last week expanding his administration’s efforts to support R&D of artificial intelligence tools in all aspects of government. No additional funding was mentioned in the order, just recommendations to set aside FY2020 budget monies for supporting the AI R&D as a national priority. AI analysts welcomed the order, but requested that the Congress appropriate the necessary funds to support these efforts. Government executives have stated that U.S. adversaries have developed AI strategies that are more aggressive than those in the U.S.
R&D Index member Google/Alphabet announced last week that it will double its capital spending in 2019 to more than $25 billion, primarily on new data centers and real estate in Nevada, Ohio, Texas and Nebraska while expanding its existing holdings in other states such as Massachusetts, Virginia and Illinois. In a separate announcement, R&D Index member Amazon announced late last week that it was canceling its previous announcement to build a second headquarters and tech center in New York City, citing local protests. The new HQ2 site will be announced later this year but could now be located in Toronto.
During China-U.S. trade negotiations last week, China’s top economic planning agency proposed increasing U.S. semiconductor sales to more than $200 billion over six years. The overall trade talks however remain deadlocked.
| R&D Index Week Ending February 15, 2019 |
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 02/08/19 | 02/15/19 | 2/15/19 to 2/8/19 | 2/15/19 to 12/31/18 | ||
| 1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,588.22 | 1,607.95 | 1.24% | 7.06% |
| 2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,102.38 | 1,119.63 | 1.56% | 7.15% |
| 3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 170.41 | 170.42 | 0.01% | 8.04% |
| 4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 48.84 | 51.66 | 5.77% | 10.08% |
| 5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 105.67 | 108.22 | 2.41% | 6.55% |
| 6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 33.76 | 34.02 | 0.77% | 9.46% |
| 7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 132.40 | 136.38 | 3.01% | 5.68% |
| 8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 77.52 | 79.81 | 2.95% | 4.45% |
| 9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 16.34 | 16.61 | 1.65% | 6.47% |
| 10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 117.31 | 121.15 | 3.27% | 4.37% |
| 11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 88.85 | 89.88 | 1.16% | 4.74% |
| 12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 26.76 | 27.37 | 2.28% | 3.48% |
| 13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 42.23 | 42.40 | 0.40% | -2.86% |
| 14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 54.71 | 57.11 | 4.39% | 8.22% |
| 15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 38.70 | 39.09 | 1.01% | 16.86% |
| 16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 51.03 | 51.72 | 1.35% | 14.55% |
| 17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 50.22 | 51.67 | 2.89% | -0.60% |
| 18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 119.60 | 122.48 | 2.41% | 5.84% |
| 19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 41.09 | 41.24 | 0.37% | 7.93% |
| 20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 47.19 | 49.43 | 4.75% | 14.08% |
| 21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 133.71 | 138.03 | 3.23% | 21.43% |
| 22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 18.86 | 19.30 | 2.33% | 9.85% |
| 23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 37.01 | 40.92 | 10.56% | 7.74% |
| 24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 50.29 | 51.98 | 3.36% | -8.65% |
| 25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 42.64 | 42.55 | -0.21% | -1.98% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,235.74 | 4,311.02 | 1.78% | 7.04% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 684.18 | 700.65 | 2.41% | 4.44% | ||||
| Automotive | 253.82 | 261.33 | 2.96% | 6.95% | ||||
| ICT | 1,709.52 | 1,741.09 | 1.79% | 8.13% | ||||
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 2017 were selected based on the latest listings from Schonfeld & Associates’ June 2018 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 2019 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.
