The R&D Index for the week ending March 29, 2019 closed at 4,598.19 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was down -0.09% (or -4.02 basis points) from the week ending March 22, 2019. The stock of 18 R&D Index members gained value from 0.05% (Sanofi SA) to 2.91% (Novartis). The stock of seven R&D Index members lost value from -0.40% (Honda) to – 5.07% (Astra Zeneca).
R&D Index member Bayer AG fell to a five-year low of 15.68 on Thursday following a court decision on Wednesday awarding $80 million to a defendant claiming his cancer was caused by exposure to Bayer-subsidiary Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer. This is the second judgement against Bayer for Roundup—the first was for $289 million last August, which was later reduced to $78.5 million. The World Health Organization listed the active ingredient in Roundup, glycophosphate, as a human carcinogen in 2015. Bayer is now facing 11,200 lawsuits from Roundup users, which the company continues to claim it will defend against.
R&D Index member Daimler announced last week that it agreed to create a joint venture with China’s Zhejiang Geely to transform Daimler’s struggling Smart city car into a global all-electric brand. This is the first deal since Geely chairman Li Shufu acquired about 10% or $9 billion of Daimler shares in 2018. Design and development will be performed by both companies with production based in China commencing in 2022. The Smart unit has been produced for 21 years and has never been profitable, according to analysts. China also announced last week that it is cutting its nearly 50% subsidies for electric cars (EVs) by half starting in June and eliminated completely at the start of 2021. China is the largest global market for EVs, but also has the largest number of EV manufacturers—487.
The U.S. trade deficit narrowed, according to the Commerce Department last week, by 15% from $60 billion in December to $51 billion in January. Imports fell 2.6% to $258 billion while exports rose 0.9% to $207 billion.
R&D Index members Apple and Qualcomm each won different patent decisions from the International Trade Commission (ITC) last week, prior to the beginning of their court battle set to begin in April over their more than two year-long battle over communication device patent rights and profits. Apple also announced last week a strategic shift away from their core cellphone business to a video subscription service carrying original programming. An Apple credit card and gaming services also were announced.
| R&D Index Week Ending March 29, 2019 |
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 03/22/19 | 03/29/19 | 3/29/19 to 3/22/19 | 3/29/19 to 12/31/18 | |
| Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,764.77 | 1,780.75 | 0.91% | 18.56% |
| Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,207.65 | 1,176.89 | -2.55% | 12.63% |
| Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 191.05 | 189.95 | -0.58% | 20.42% |
| Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 53.26 | 53.70 | 0.83% | 14.43% |
| Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 117.05 | 117.94 | 0.76% | 16.12% |
| Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 33.76 | 34.39 | 1.87% | 10.65% |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 136.91 | 139.79 | 2.10% | 8.32% |
| Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 82.29 | 83.17 | 1.07% | 8.85% |
| Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 16.11 | 16.24 | 0.81% | 4.10% |
| Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 120.22 | 118.02 | -1.83% | 1.67% |
| Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 93.42 | 96.14 | 2.91% | 12.04% |
| Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 27.28 | 27.17 | -0.40% | 2.72% |
| Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 41.85 | 42.47 | 1.48% | -2.70% |
| Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 57.17 | 58.57 | 2.45% | 10.99% |
| General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 36.44 | 37.10 | 1.81% | 10.91% |
| Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 52.77 | 53.71 | 1.78% | 18.96% |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 48.16 | 47.71 | -0.93% | -8.21% |
| Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 128.30 | 129.76 | 1.14% | 12.13% |
| GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 41.25 | 41.79 | 1.31% | 9.37% |
| Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 52.74 | 53.99 | 2.37% | 24.60% |
| IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 139.45 | 141.10 | 1.18% | 24.13% |
| Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 16.64 | 16.10 | -3.25% | -8.37% |
| Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 42.59 | 40.43 | -5.07% | 6.45% |
| Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 56.82 | 57.03 | 0.37% | 0.23% |
| Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 44.26 | 44.28 | 0.05% | 2.00% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,602.21 | 4,598.19 | -0.09% | 14.17% | ||
| Biopharmaceutical | 709.43 | 716.03 | 0.93% | 6.73% | |||
| Automotive | 257.22 | 257.10 | -0.05% | 5.22% | |||
| ICT | 1,870.79 | 1,844.31 | -1.42% |
14.54% |
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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.
