The R&D Index for the week ending March 15, 2019 closed at 4,530.22 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was up 3.91% (or 170.36 basis points) from the week ending March 8, 2019. The stock of twenty R&D Index members gained value from 0.21% (General Motors) to 7.64% (Apple Computer). The stock of five R&D Index members lost value from -0.33% (Johnson & Johnson) to – 2.78% (Bristol-Myers Squibb).
The Federal Reserve released a report last Friday revealing a 0.4% drop in U.S. manufacturing output in February, which followed a 0.5% drop in January. February’s decline spread across several sectors, including machinery, electronics and apparel. Yields on U.S. Treasury notes also fell on Friday to about 2.5%, revealing overall weakness in bond market growth.
R&D Index member Toyota announced last week that it is increasing its planned U.S. investments by about a third ($4 billion) to $13 billion through 2021. The investments will target increased U.S. production capabilities for engines, axles and other vehicle components. The increases are expected to help offset potential tariffs for imported cars from Japan. Toyota is also building a $1.6 billion assembly plant in Alabama with Mazda that’s scheduled to be completed in 2021.
R&D Index member Oracle announced last week that its fiscal 3Q revenue fell for the second consecutive quarter, although it still beat analysts’ expectations. Oracle’s sluggish performance is being beat out in the booming cloud-computing sector by stronger competitors Microsoft, IBM and Amazon. IT analyst Brad Reback said, “The cloud computing world is passing Oracle by.”
R&D Index member Volkswagen announced last week that it was cutting 7,000 global office jobs (R&D not mentioned) over the next five years in its efforts to find funds for its increasing investments for development of electric and self-driving vehicles. VW’s job cuts expected to be partially offset by new hires for software programming and development.
The FY2020 federal budget released last week would increase the DOD’s RDT&E spending by more than $9 billion to $104.3 billion, a 10% increase relative to 2019 spending. To offset this increase, procurement of high-cost DOD programs would be cut, including the F-35 fighter, KC-46 tanker, AH-64 helicopter and C-130 cargo aircraft.
| R&D Index Week Ending March 15, 2019 |
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 03/08/19 | 03/15/19 | 3/15/19 to 3/08/19 | 3/15/19 to 12/31/18 | ||
| 1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,620.80 | 1,712.36 | 5.65% | 14.01% |
| 2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,149.97 | 1,190.30 | 3.51% | 13.91% |
| 3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 172.91 | 186.12 | 7.64% | 17.99% |
| 4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 52.48 | 54.33 | 3.52% | 15.77% |
| 5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 110.51 | 115.91 | 4.89% | 14.12% |
| 6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 33.62 | 33.93 | 0.92% | 9.17% |
| 7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 138.06 | 137.60 | -0.33% | 6.62% |
| 8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 79.80 | 81.57 | 2.22% | 6.75% |
| 9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 17.00 | 16.66 | -2.00% | 6.80% |
| 10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 117.71 | 118.97 | 1.07% | 2.49% |
| 11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 89.68 | 93.29 | 4.02% | 8.72% |
| 12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 27.05 | 27.45 | 1.48% | 3.78% |
| 13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 40.89 | 41.78 | 2.18% | -4.28% |
| 14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 56.50 | 58.48 | 3.50% | 10.82% |
| 15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 37.99 | 38.07 | 0.21% | 13.81% |
| 16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 52.77 | 52.94 | 0.32% | 17.25% |
| 17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 51.39 | 49.96 | -2.78% | -3.89% |
| 18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 126.70 | 123.94 | -2.18% | 7.10% |
| 19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 40.12 | 40.63 | 1.27% | 6.33% |
| 20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 51.07 | 53.20 | 4.17% | 22.78% |
| 21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 135.09 | 139.43 | 3.21% | 22.66% |
| 22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 19.54 | 19.10 | -2.25% | 8.71% |
| 23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 41.77 | 42.51 | 1.77% | 11.93% |
| 24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 53.53 | 56.60 | 5.74% | -0.53% |
| 25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 42.91 | 45.09 | 5.08% | 3.87% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,359.86 | 4,530.22 | 3.91% | 12.48% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 704.48 | 709.40 | 0.70% | 5.74% | ||||
| Automotive | 256.25 | 259.63 | 1.32% | 6.25% | ||||
| ICT | 1,728.33 | 1,848.83 | 6.97% | 14.82% | ||||
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.
