The R&D Index for the week ending March 1, 2019 closed at 4,441.76 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was up 2.15% (or 93.48 basis points) from the week ending February 22, 2019. The stock of 21 R&D Index members gained value from 0.06% (Oracle) to 7.88% (Bayer AG). The stock of four R&D Index members lost value from -0.04% (IBM) to -1.21% (Toyota).
The Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing managers index declined to 54.2 in February from 56.6 in January due to cold weather and international trade uncertainties. Analysts expected the index to soften in the first part of 2019, following a strong showing in 2018. Forecaster Microeconomic advisors lowered U.S. growth in 1Q 2019 to 1.2%, down from an earlier estimate of 1.6%. The index for new manufacturing orders also dropped in February to 55.5 from 58.2 in January. On the other side of the Pacific, China announced last week that activity in its manufacturing sector fell to its lowest level in February, 49.2 from 49.5 in January, in three years, supported by the long lunar New Year holiday. China government measures to stimulate manufacturing activity have yet to appear.
It was announced last week that R&D Index member Daimler and BMW AG plan to jointly develop self-driving technologies. The development is expected to include technologies for highway driving and self-parking applications. The new vehicles would be marketed in the U.S., Europe and China.
R&D Index member VW also announced last week that it would invest about $1.7 billion in Ford Motor Co.’s Argo subsidiary. The two companies agreed to make Argo, Ford’s autonomous driving unit, the center of a joint venture that could receive additional assets from VW over time. The joint venture would have access to a fifth of the world’s new vehicle sales. VW stated that it will initially provide $1.1 billion for the venture’s R&D efforts. The two companies would each own half of the joint venture.
China’s government announced last week that it had drafted new rules for researchers editing human DNA. These rules follow a Chinese researcher’s claims in 2018 to have edited genes for the birth of Chinese babies. Researchers will now need to get permission from the National Health Ministry, with hefty fines for those who do not.
| R&D Index Week Ending March 1, 2019 |
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 02/22/19 | 03/01/19 | 3/1/19 to 2/22/19 | 3/1/19 to 12/31/18 | ||
| 1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,631.56 | 1,671.73 | 2.46% | 11.30% |
| 2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,116.56 | 1,148.52 | 2.86% | 9.91% |
| 3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 172.97 | 174.97 | 1.16% | 10.92% |
| 4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 52.49 | 53.30 | 1.54% | 13.57% |
| 5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 110.97 | 112.53 | 1.41% | 10.79% |
| 6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 34.73 | 34.80 | 0.20% | 11.97% |
| 7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 136.60 | 138.35 | 1.28% | 7.21% |
| 8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 80.77 | 81.65 | 1.09% | 6.86% |
| 9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 17.14 | 17.95 | 4.73% | 15.06% |
| 10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 121.82 | 120.34 | -1.21% | 3.67% |
| 11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 90.78 | 91.40 | 0.68% | 6.51% |
| 12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 28.17 | 28.35 | 0.64% | 7.18% |
| 13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 42.96 | 43.36 | 0.93% | -0.66% |
| 14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 59.25 | 60.90 | 2.78% | 15.41% |
| 15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 39.99 | 39.53 | -1.15% | 18.18% |
| 16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 52.48 | 52.51 | 0.06% | 16.30% |
| 17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 50.98 | 53.22 | 4.39% | 2.49% |
| 18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 124.00 | 128.84 | 3.90% | 11.34% |
| 19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 40.55 | 40.39 | -0.39% | 5.71% |
| 20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 50.11 | 51.41 | 2.59% | 18.65% |
| 21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 139.25 | 139.20 | -0.04% | 22.46% |
| 22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 18.91 | 20.40 | 7.88% | 16.11% |
| 23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 40.94 | 41.76 | 2.00% | 9.95% |
| 24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 53.12 | 54.20 | 2.03% | -4.75% |
| 25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 41.18 | 42.15 | 2.36% | -2.90% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,348.28 | 4,441.76 | 2.15% | 10.29% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 702.40 | 716.32 | 1.98% | 6.77% | ||||
| Automotive | 266.37 | 267.07 | 0.26% | 9.30% | ||||
| ICT | 1,747.95 | 1,786.64 | 2.21% | 10.95% | ||||
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 2018 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.
