R&D Market Pulse Index for the week ending October 20, 2017 closed at 3,616.71 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was down -0.05% (or -1.71 basis points) over the week ending October 13, 2017. Thirteen R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.03% (Astra Zeneca) to 10.18% (IBM). Twelve R&D Index companies lost value last week from -0.10% (Honda) to -5.35% (Roche Pharmaceuticals).
R&D Index member IBM’s stock surged nearly 10% last week following announcement of its Q3 results which beat analysts’ expectations. However many analysts stated that the rise was an overreaction and IBM still reported its 22nd consecutive quarter of declining revenue. IBM’s cloud products, which account for about 20% of its revenue, still trail Amazon’s Web Services and Microsoft’s Azure cloud products and likely won’t be able to make many inroads due to price.
Sales of Apple’s new iWatch has been suspended in China due to security concerns by the government tied to tracking users of the device. The new iWatch uses different technologies than standard mobile phones to make phone calls independent of a linked cell phone, which earlier models utilized. The new watch uses a tiny version of a SIM card, which is embedded in the watch by Apple and not by carriers. Chinese government researchers are likely studying how to resolve this security issue before allowing any broad cellular access to the device.
General Secretary of China’s Communist Party Xi Jinping gave a 3.5-hour speech at China’s once-every-five-year congress last Wednesday. In the speech were indications of the directions that China will pursue over the next five years. These include:
- China will expand economic growth in advanced manufacturing, big data, innovation, consumption industries and a “green and low-carbon economy.
- China will support the development of private hospitals and an aged care industry.
- China will move faster to build Chinese universities into world-class universities and support the development of private schools.
- China will address housing affordability in its cities to minimize speculation.
- China will significantly ease market access, protect the rights of foreign investors and further open the service sector.
- Private companies, including foreign joint ventures, will become a priority in a campaign to increase the number of communist party branches.
- China will modernize its military, which will be used to back up its foreign policy initiatives with a readiness to engage in combat and win wars.
A new standing committee of seven communist leaders will be revealed this week.
R&D Index Week Ending October 20, 2017
| Ticker | Exchange | 2017 R&D billions$ | 10/13/17 | 10/20/17 | 10/20/17 to 10/13/17 | 10/20/17 to 1/1/17 | ||
| 1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 17,774 | 1,002.94 | 982.91 | -2.00% | 31.08% |
| 2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 15,845 | 1,007.87 | 1,005.07 | -0.28% | 26.83% |
| 3 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,987 | 77.49 | 78.81 | 1.70% | 26.83% |
| 4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,499 | 39.67 | 40.43 | 1.92% | 11.47% |
| 5 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 11,506 | 156.99 | 156.25 | -0.47% | 34.91% |
| 6 | Volkswagen AG | VLKAY | OTC | 11,260 | 35.23 | 35.00 | -0.65% | 22.04% |
| 7 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 10,174 | 31.41 | 29.73 | -5.35% | 4.21% |
| 8 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 9,170 | 123.38 | 123.71 | 0.27% | 5.55% |
| 9 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 9,060 | 136.43 | 142.40 | 4.08% | 23.60% |
| 10 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 7,870 | 86.13 | 85.74 | -0.45% | 17.71% |
| 11 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,468 | 45.88 | 45.61 | -0.59% | 30.91% |
| 12 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,288 | 36.34 | 36.42 | 0.22% | 12.13% |
| 13 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,942 | 65.29 | 64.42 | -1.33% | 10.23% |
| 14 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,827 | 33.47 | 34.25 | 2.33% | 13.33% |
| 15 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 6,723 | 52.82 | 52.02 | -1.51% | -20.21% |
| 16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 6,702 | 48.61 | 49.25 | 1.32% | 28.09% |
| 17 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 6,519 | 30.26 | 30.23 | -0.10% | 3.56% |
| 18 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 6,363 | 34.61 | 34.62 | 0.03% | 26.72% |
| 19 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 5,759 | 63.39 | 63.88 | 0.77% | 8.51% |
| 20 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 5,084 | 67.91 | 68.36 | 0.66% | -3.34% |
| 21 | Bayer AG | BAYN | XETRA | 4,880 | 118.15 | 117.95 | -0.47% | 18.99% |
| 22 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,755 | 49.49 | 49.51 | 0.04% | 22.43% |
| 23 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 4,628 | 147.10 | 162.07 | 10.18% | -2.36% |
| 24 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 4,508 | 41.01 | 40.84 | -0.41% | 6.05% |
| 25 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 4,489 | 86.55 | 87.23 | 0.79% | 18.60% |
| Total | 209,080 | 3,618.42 | 3,616.71 | -0.05% | 21.27% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 748.80 | 752.74 | 0.53% | 16.65% | ||||
| Automotive | 302.66 | 302.91 | 0.08% | 7.94% | ||||
| ICT | 1,564.02 | 1,578.15 | 0.90% | 20.79% | ||||
About the R&D Market Pulse Index
R&D Market Pulse 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.
