The R&D Index for the holiday-shortened week ending January 25, 2019 closed at 4294.02 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was down -0.89% (or 38.51 basis points) from the week ending January 18, 2019. The stock of 10 R&D Index members gained value from 0.08% (General Motors) to 8.20% (IBM). The stock of fifteen R&D Index members lost value from -0.50% (Microsoft) to -7.18% (Qualcomm).
The Federal Reserve has its first 2019 meeting this week on January 29 to 30 and is expected to discuss its portfolio of Treasury securities, which it has been shrinking since October 2017’s level of about $4.5 trillion. The Fed announced last year that it was postponing any additional short-term interest rate increases for the time being and it’s expected (by analysts) to postpone any additional Treasury liquidations this week as well to further stabilize the economy.
R&D Index member IBM had its first year-over-year growth in seven years last week as it announced $79.6 billion in quarterly earnings, up 1% which resulted in an 8.5% increase in its stock last Wednesday. The company also announced this month that it had a record 9,100 U.S. patents in 2018, marking the 26th year in a row that the company has been the top patent recipient. Samsung was a distant second with 5,850 2018 patents. 1,600 of IBM’s patents focused on AI-related designs. IBM also announced this month its release of IBM Q System One at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This product is the latest of several quantum computers that IBM has introduced, the first integrated quantum computing system designed for commercial use. IBM’s quantum computer builds on the U.S. National Quantum Initiative Act signed into law on December 21 by President Trump.
Two reports released last week, by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Chamber of Commerce in China, noted that China is widely implementing plans across the country to become a global technology leader. The plans focus on the government’s Made in China 2025 plan which seeks to make China a leader in electric vehicles, aerospace and robotics by 2025.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week announced a slowdown in its forecast for China to 3.5% growth in 2019, down from its 3.7% forecast in October and 3.9% forecast last July. Much of this economic slowdown is attributed to reductions in its manufacturing output.
| R&D Index Week Ending January 25, 2019 |
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 01/18/19 | 01/25/19 | 1/25/19 to 1/18/19 | 1/25/19 to 12/31/18 | |
| Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,696.20 | 1,670.57 | -1.51% | 11.23% |
| Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,107.30 | 1,101.51 | -0.52% | 5.41% |
| Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 156.82 | 157.76 | 0.60% | 0.01% |
| Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 49.19 | 47.04 | -4.37% | 0.23% |
| Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 107.71 | 107.17 | -0.50% | 5.51% |
| Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 32.61 | 32.06 | -1.69% | 3.15% |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 130.69 | 128.23 | -1.88% | -0.63% |
| Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 75.87 | 72.95 | -3.85% | -4.53% |
| Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 16.72 | 17.50 | 4.67% | 12.18% |
| Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 125.35 | 123.72 | -1.30% | 6.58% |
| Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 88.99 | 85.95 | -3.42% | 0.16% |
| Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 29.76 | 30.01 | 0.84% | 13.46% |
| Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 42.53 | 40.64 | -4.44% | -6.90% |
| Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 57.95 | 59.87 | 3.31% | 13.45% |
| General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 38.61 | 38.64 | 0.08% | 15.52% |
| Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 49.27 | 49.80 | 1.08% | 10.30% |
| Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 50.12 | 48.93 | -2.37% | -5.87% |
| Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 116.59 | 114.97 | -1.39% | -0.65% |
| GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 39.06 | 38.42 | -1.64% | 0.55% |
| Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 45.03 | 46.13 | 2.44% | 6.46% |
| IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 123.82 | 133.97 | 8.20% | 17.86% |
| Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 19.04 | 19.36 | 1.68% | 10.19% |
| Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 36.55 | 35.75 | -2.19% | -5.87% |
| Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 55.27 | 51.30 | -7.18% | -9.84% |
| Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 41.48 | 41.77 | 0.70% | -3.78% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,332.53 | 4,294.02 | -0.89% | 6.62% | ||
| Biopharmaceutical | 673.53 | 659.03 | -2.15% | -1.76% | |||
| Automotive | 268.39 | 269.71 | 0.49% | 10.38% | |||
| ICT | 1,694.41 | 1,694.68 | 0.02% | 5.24% | |||
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 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.
