The R&D Index for the week ending October 5, 2018 closed at 4,716.80 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was down 3.24% (or -157.99 basis points) from the week ending September 28, 2018. The stock of eight R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.13% (Merck & Co.) to 7.18% (Eli Lilly Co.). The stock of seventeen R&D Index companies lost value last week from -0.55% (Intel) to -5.66% (Amazon).
R&D Index members General Motors and Honda announced last week that they will collaborate to accelerate the deployment of self-driving cares in 2019. Honda will contribute $2 billion to the partnership over the next 12 years and will invest $750 million in Cruise, GM’s self-driving car company. The two companies already have a collaboration in battery development and hydrogen fuel cells that they announced earlier this year. San Francisco-based Cruise was acquired by GM in 2016 for about $1 billion.
Ford Motor announced last week that it was planning workforce cuts by mid-2019 as part of its $25.5 billion reorganization through 2022. Ford’s R&D is not expected to have job cuts, it plans to increase its R&D from $8.3 billion in 2018 to $8.6 billion in 2019, which is more than 15% more than the much larger R&D Index member General Motors.
R&D Index member GM planned to set up a separate R&D entity in South Korea, which was opposed by local labor groups at the time. GM Korea’s Board approved the creation of the new R&D entity last Thursday
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) last week stated last week that it plans to rewrite its regulations that bar self-driving cars from the road without steering wheels, pedals and mirrors. The NHTSA also said it will consider a more fundamental revamping of its approach to safety standards.
The Labor Department announced Friday that the U.S. unemployment rate for September dropped to 3.7%, the lowest rate since December 1969. It also noted that 134,000 jobs were added in September, the 96th consecutive month of job increases. The Federal Reserve says that unemployment will drop to 3.5% in 2019 and remain below 4% through 2021.
R&D Index Week Ending October 5, 2018 |
Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 09/28/18 | 10/05/18 | 10/5/18 to 9/28/18 | 10/5/18 to 12/29/17 | ||
1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 2,003.00 | 1,889.65 | -5.66% | 61.58% |
2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,207.08 | 1,167.83 | -3.25% | 10.86% |
3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 225.74 | 224.29 | -0.64% | 32.54% |
4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 47.29 | 47.03 | -0.55% | 1.88% |
5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 114.37 | 112.13 | -1.96% | 31.08% |
6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 30.16 | 30.85 | 2.29% | -2.31% |
7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 138.17 | 139.10 | 0.67% | -0.44% |
8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 70.94 | 71.03 | 0.13% | 26.23% |
9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 17.29 | 16.94 | -2.02% | -58.11% |
10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 124.35 | 121.50 | -2.29% | -4.46% |
11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 86.16 | 85.51 | -0.75% | 1.85% |
12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 30.08 | 28.85 | -4.09% | -15.35% |
13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 44.07 | 44.91 | 1.91% | 23.99% |
14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 63.03 | 63.86 | 1.32% | -24.48% |
15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 33.67 | 34.12 | 1.34% | -16.76% |
16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 51.56 | 49.35 | -4.29% | 4.38% |
17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 62.08 | 62.41 | 0.53% | 1.84% |
18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 107.31 | 115.02 | 7.18% | 36.18% |
19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 40.17 | 39.81 | -0.90% | 12.24% |
20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 48.65 | 48.13 | -1.07% | 25.67% |
21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 151.21 | 149.03 | -1.44% | -2.86% |
22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 22.14 | 21.53 | -2.76% | -30.74% |
23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 39.57 | 39.06 | -1.29% | 12.56% |
24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 72.03 | 71.21 | -1.14% | 11.23% |
25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 44.67 | 43.65 | -2.28% | 1.51% |
Total | 243,754 | 4,874.79 | 4,716.80 | -3.24% | 24.39% | |||
Biopharmaceutical | 685.44 | 692.88 | 1.09% | 8.64% | ||||
Automotive | 268.42 | 265.27 | -1.17% | -18.94% | ||||
ICT | 1,947.93 | 1,869.00 | -4.05% | 12.77% |
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 2018 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.