The R&D Index for the week ending April 26, 2019 closed at 4,901.23 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was up 3.03% (or 144.26 basis points) from the week ending April 18, 2019. The stock of 15 R&D Index members gained value from 0.22% (Apple Computer) to 8.45% (Qualcomm). The stock of 10 R&D Index members lost value from -0.09% (Roche Pharma) to -10.36% (Intel).
The Commerce Department reported on Friday that the U.S. GDP rose at a 3.2% annual rate from January to March, the strongest 1Q growth in four years. The rate increase was attributed to rising exports, falling imports and increased inventory investments. Non-residential fixed investment—which includes industrial spending on software, R&D, equipment and structures—rose at a 2.7% rate, falling from 5.4% in 4Q-2018.
R&D Index member Intel announced last week that it was considering strategic alternatives to its 5G cell phone modem development following the resolution of the Apple/Qualcomm litigation and Intel’s decision to quit its modem development. According to analysts, the alternatives could include selling its development program to Apple. Intel stock fell more than 10% following their announcement.
Samsung also announced that it will invest $116 billion through 2030 in the development of non-memory chips. More than half of this ($59 billion or about $6 billion per year through 2030) will go towards R&D and thus create 15,000 jobs. The remainder will go towards the building of infrastructure. Samsung surpassed Intel in 2018 in the number of microprocessors produced, however Intel still has a technological lead in high-end microprocessors. Intel currently invests more than $14 billion annually in R&D. Samsung invested about $16.7 billion in total global R&D in 2018.
R&D Index member GlaxoSmithKline announced last week that its corporate reorganization will result in layoffs of about 300 chemists/researchers at its Upper Providence, Pennsylvania facility and other GSK locations. GSK’s refocusing on oncology should result in the addition of a similar number of researchers in that field.
Ford Motor Co. announced last week that it will invest $500 million in startup Rivian Automotive to co-develop electric truck vehicles. This investment is separate from Ford’s internal $11 billion multi-year investment in EVs, which includes an electric version of its popular F150 pickup. R&D Index member Amazon announced in February that it also was investing $700 million in Rivian. New vehicles will be manufactured in a former Mitsubishi Motors plant in Normal, Illinois.
| R&D Index Week Ending April 26, 2019 |
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 04/18/19 | 04/26/19 | 4/26/19 to 4/18/19 | 4/26/19 to 12/31/18 | ||
| 1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,861.69 | 1,950.63 | 4.78% | 29.87% |
| 2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,241.47 | 1,277.42 | 2.90% | 22.25% |
| 3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 203.86 | 204.30 | 0.22% | 29.52% |
| 4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 58.49 | 52.43 | -10.36% | 11.72% |
| 5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 123.37 | 129.89 | 5.28% | 27.88% |
| 6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 32.69 | 32.66 | -0.09% | 5.08% |
| 7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 137.52 | 140.39 | 2.09% | 8.79% |
| 8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 73.19 | 76.63 | 4.70% | 0.29% |
| 9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 18.73 | 17.79 | -5.02% | 14.04% |
| 10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 125.16 | 123.62 | -1.23% | 6.50% |
| 11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 76.41 | 81.29 | 6.39% | -5.27% |
| 12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 28.88 | 27.98 | -3.12% | 5.78% |
| 13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 39.38 | 39.97 | 1.50% | -8.43% |
| 14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 66.83 | 65.02 | -2.71% | 23.21% |
| 15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 40.30 | 39.68 | -1.54% | 18.62% |
| 16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 54.52 | 55.41 | 1.63% | 22.72% |
| 17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 45.52 | 45.89 | 0.81% | -11.72% |
| 18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 115.20 | 119.87 | 4.05% | 3.59% |
| 19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 39.85 | 40.40 | 1.38% | 5.73% |
| 20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 56.40 | 55.88 | -0.92% | 28.96% |
| 21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 140.33 | 139.44 | -0.63% | 22.67% |
| 22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 17.18 | 17.39 | 1.22% | -1.02% |
| 23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 38.80 | 37.99 | -2.09% | 0.,03% |
| 24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 79.89 | 86.64 | 8.45% | 52.27% |
| 25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 41.31 | 42.62 | 3.17% | -1.82% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,756.97 | 4,901.23 | 3.03% | 21.70% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 657.05 | 675.10 | 2.75% | 0.63% | ||||
| Automotive | 279.90 | 274.09 | -2.08% | 12.17% | ||||
| ICT | 1,958.33 | 2,001.41 | 2.20% | 24.29% | ||||
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.
