The R&D Index for the week ending October 19, 2018 closed at 4,465.39 for the 25 companies in the R&D Index. The Index was down -0.89% (or -40.17 basis points) from the week ending October 12, 2018. The stock of thirteen R&D Index companies gained value last week from 0.06% (Volkswagen AG) to 6.68% (GlaxoSmithKline). The stock of twelve R&D Index companies lost value last week from -0.15% (Honda) to -8.34% (IBM).
R&D Index member IBM fell to its lowest stock value in a year following announcement that it failed to reach its long-held goal of getting more than 50% of its revenue from cloud computing, data analytics and other fast-growing IT businesses. 3Q 2018 revenue fell 2.1% from 3Q 2017 revenue, overall profit fell 1.2% to $2.69 billion for the quarter.
A recent survey of 2,000 business leaders in France, Germany, Spain and the UK by Washington, DC-based FTI Consulting revealed that more than 60% of UK businesses are preparing to move their R&D facilities out of the UK following the departure of the UK from the European Union (Brexit), which is now scheduled for March 29, 2019. A recent conference hosted by Texas-based market research firm Frost & Sullivan concluded that the UK and the EU will reach a trade deal before the Brexit deadline, despite their failure to reach a deal in early October. The FTI report reveals that the survey respondents are preparing for a ‘no-deal’ scenario with contingency planning that could have a major impact on the UK economy.
In related Brexit news, Cancer Research UK recently announced that they are collaborating with two peer organizations in Italy and Spain to fund several new R&D projects—providing an example that Brexit is not a hindrance to UK-EU R&D cooperation. One of the sticking points right now is how to avoid the re-emergence of physical border in Ireland.
The Labor Department announced last Tuesday that the number of available jobs in the U.S. out-numbered the number of jobless people actively looking for work by more than 900,000, the highest such statistic on record.
Minutes released by the Fed last week of its latest meeting (September 26), revealed a consensus of policy makers that their current schedule of interest rate increases (three so far in 2018 with one more likely in December and three scheduled for 2019) are likely to be maintained due to continued strength in the job market and overall economy.
| R&D Index Week Ending October 19, 2018 |
| Ticker | Exchange | 2018 R&D millions U.S. $ | 10/12/18 | 10/19/18 | 10/19/18 to 10/12/18 | 10/19/18 to 12/29/17 | ||
| 1 | Amazon | AMZN | NASDAQ | 26,750 | 1,788.61 | 1,764.03 | -1.37% | 50.84% |
| 2 | Alphabet/Google | GOOGL | NASDAQ | 18,796 | 1,120.54 | 1,105.18 | -1.37% | 4.92% |
| 3 | Apple | AAPL | NASDAQ | 14,037 | 222.11 | 219.31 | -1.26% | 29.59% |
| 4 | Intel | INTC | NASDAQ | 13,702 | 44.88 | 44.00 | -1.98% | -4.68% |
| 5 | Microsoft | MSFT | NASDAQ | 13,558 | 109.57 | 108.66 | -0.83% | 27.03% |
| 6 | Roche Pharm | RHHBY | OTC | 12,284 | 29.70 | 30.60 | 3.03% | -3.10% |
| 7 | Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | NYSE | 11,493 | 133.87 | 139.05 | 3.87% | -0.48% |
| 8 | Merck & Co. | MRK | NYSE | 11,323 | 69.81 | 72.35 | 3.64% | 28.58% |
| 9 | Volkswagen AG | VWAGY | OTC | 10,915 | 15.95 | 15.96 | 0.06% | -60.53% |
| 10 | Toyota | TM | NYSE | 10,848 | 116.76 | 116.32 | -0.38% | -8.53% |
| 11 | Novartis | NVS | NYSE | 8,934 | 82.78 | 87.19 | 5.33% | 3.85% |
| 12 | Honda | HMC | NYSE | 8,180 | 27.21 | 27.17 | -0.15% | -20.28% |
| 13 | Pfizer | PFE | NYSE | 7,942 | 43.78 | 44.50 | 1.64% | 22.86% |
| 14 | Daimler | DDAIY | OTC | 7,615 | 61.47 | 59.13 | -3.81% | -30.07% |
| 15 | General Motors | GM | NYSE | 7,278 | 31.79 | 31.20 | -1.86% | -23.88% |
| 16 | Oracle | ORCL | NYSE | 7,001 | 47.38 | 47.59 | 0.44% | 0.66% |
| 17 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | BMY | NYSE | 6,981 | 57.51 | 54.30 | -5.58% | -11.39% |
| 18 | Eli Lilly Co | LLY | NYSE | 6,769 | 110.48 | 111.92 | 1.30% | 32.51% |
| 19 | GlaxoSmithKline | GSK | NYSE | 6,394 | 38.31 | 40.87 | 6.68% | 15.22% |
| 20 | Cisco | CSCO | NASDAQ | 6,009 | 45.71 | 45.34 | -0.81% | 18.38% |
| 21 | IBM | IBM | NYSE | 5,842 | 140.85 | 129.10 | -8.34% | -15.85% |
| 22 | Bayer AG | BAYN | OTC | 5,743 | 22.16 | 22.48 | 1.44% | -27.69% |
| 23 | Astra Zeneca PLC | AZN | NYSE | 5,483 | 37.15 | 39.21 | 5.55% | 13.00% |
| 24 | Qualcomm | QCOM | NASDAQ | 5,183 | 64.29 | 65.36 | 1.66% | 2.09% |
| 25 | Sanofi SA | SNY | NYSE | 4,694 | 42.89 | 44.57 | 3.92% | 3.65% |
| Total | 243,754 | 4,505.56 | 4,465.39 | -0.89% | 17.76% | |||
| Biopharmaceutical | 668.44 | 687.04 | 2.78% | 7.73% | ||||
| Automotive | 253.18 | 249.78 | -1.34% | -23.67% | ||||
| ICT | 1,795.33 | 1,764.54 | -1.72% | 6.47% | ||||
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.
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.
