The R&D Index for the week ending April 13, 2018 closed at 4,025.70 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was up 2.31% (or 90.82 basis points) from the week ending April 6, 2018. Twenty-four R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.53% (Roche Pharm) to 7.14% (Merck & Co.). One R&D Index company lost value last week: -3.66% (Bristol-Myers Squibb).

R&D Index member Volkswagen had a boardroom coup last week with CEO Matthias Muller being replaced by Herbert Diess. A reorganization of the company’s operating divisions was also authorized by the Board creating a passenger car group (Seat, Skoda and VW), a Sports Car Group (Porsche, Lamborghini, Bugatti and Bentley) and a Premium Car Group (Audi). Its MAN and Scania trucks would be converted into a joint stock corporation. VW, with its large China production unit, is expected to become the largest (by volume) auto manufacturer in the world in 2018, surpassing current # 2 GM and # 1 Toyota. VW already is the largest automotive R&D investor with $10.9 billion expected to be spent in 2018.

A relaxation in the China-U.S. trade war rhetoric last week by Chinese President Xi Jinping was credited with improving the stock market for the week. At the annual Boao Economic Forum Xi pledged an increased commitment to economic liberalization, greater intellectual property (IP) protection and increased access to China’s financial and manufacturing sectors for foreign companies.

The U.S. Dept. of Justice last week approved R&D Index member Bayer AG’s $60 billion acquisition of Monsanto. The approval was based on assurances that the two companies would sell additional assets to satisfy anti-trust issues which had been a recent sticking point. Bayer and Monsanto executives had recently met with Justice Dept. officials to secure the approval.

The U.S. Dept. of Defense is expected to announce next week a list of requirements for moving the Department’s data to a cloud computer environment. The Department has reiterated that it is not against awarding the proposed contract to just one company, implying that cloud-market leader and R&D Index member Amazon could be the winner of the competition by sheer size and the fact that it has won several other government cloud contracts over the past few years. Other government agencies, such as the CIA and the Smithsonian, are also looking to move their data to the cloud rather than operate their own data centers.

R&D Index Week Ending April 13, 2018

	Ticker	Exchange	2017 R&D billions$	04/06/18	04/13/18	4/13/18 to 4/6/18	4/13/18 to 12/29/17
Amazon	AMZN	NASDAQ	17,774	1,405.23	1,430.79	1.82%	22.35%
Alphabet/Google	GOOGL	NASDAQ	15,845	1,009.95	1,029.27	1.91%	-2.29%
Microsoft	MSFT	NASDAQ	13,987	90.23	93.08	3.16%	8.81%
Intel	INTC	NASDAQ	13,499	48.79	51.86	6.29%	12.35%
Apple	AAPL	NASDAQ	11,506	168.38	174.73	4.59%	3.25%
Volkswagen AG	VLKAY	OTC	11,260	40.21	42.85	6.57%	5.96%
Roche Pharm	RHHBY	OTC	10,174	28.05	28.20	0.53%	-10.70%
Toyota	TM	NYSE	9,170	125.37	128.53	2.52%	1.07%
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	NYSE	9,060	128.10	130.62	1.97%	-6.51%
Novartis	NVS	NYSE	7,870	80.20	81.04	1.05%	-3.48%
General Motors	GM	NYSE	7,468	37.68	38.73	2.79%	-5.51%
Pfizer	PFE	NYSE	7,288	35.17	36.32	3.27%	0.28%
Bristol-Myers Squibb	BMY	NYSE	6,942	60.88	58.65	-3.66%	-4.29%
Cisco	CSCO	NASDAQ	6,827	40.73	43.00	5.57%	12.27%
Qualcomm	QCOM	NASDAQ	6,723	53.12	55.73	4.91%	-12.95%
Oracle	ORCL	NYSE	6,702	44.83	46.08	2.79%	-2.54%
Honda	HMC	NYSE	6,519	34.23	34.98	2.19%	2.64%
Astra Zeneca PLC	AZN	NYSE	6,363	35.42	36.32	2.54%	4.67%
Merck & Co.	MRK	NYSE	5,759	53.36	57.17	7.14%	1.60%
Daimler	DDAIY	OTC	5,084	79.80	81.09	1.62%	-4.10%
Bayer AG	BAYN	OTC	4,880	28.65	30.09	5.03%	-3.22%
Sanofi SA	SNY	NYSE	4,755	40.15	40.56	1.02%	-5.67%
IBM	IBM	NYSE	4,628	150.57	156.71	4.08%	2.14%
GlaxoSmithKline	GSK	NYSE	4,508	39.93	40.58	1.63%	14.41%
Eli Lilly Co	LLY	NYSE	4,489	76.85	79.72	3.73%	-5.61%
Total			209,080	3,935.88	4,026.70	2.31%	6.19%
		Biopharmaceutical		606.76	619.27	2.05%	-2.90%
		Automotive		314.78	326.18	3.62%	-0.32%
		ICT		1,606.60	1,650.46	2.73%	-0.42%