D20 Drops 2.3 percent as Dow and S&P also decline

Fourteen stock price losers easily overcame six price gainers to drive the Driverless Transportation Weekly Stock Index (D20) to a 2.34 percent drop this week.  None of the indexes fared well as the Dow slumped 1.1 percent and the S&P 500 lost 1.4 percent to close at 2441.32.

Leading D20 price percentage gainer, Renesas Electronics Corp (TSE:6723) of Japan, jumped 5.6 percent as it announced volume shipment of its R-Car system-on-chip (SoC).

Two thirds of the D20’s 2.34 percent decrease was caused by NVIDIA’s (NVDA) 6.7 percent tumble.  NVIDIA lost $11.25 per share in this week’s trading despite announcing better than expected fiscal 2Q2018 earnings.  NVIDIA’s revenue jumped 56% year over year and earnings more than doubled, yet its stock price dropped significantly.

Visit the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

Up and Comers:

Oryx, an Israeli LiDAR start-up, has raised $50 million in a Series B round.  Oryx’s approach to LiDAR differs from its established competitors, like Velodyne LiDAR, in that it has no moving parts and uses antennas instead of photo-receptors. This approach should make the devices less costly and more reliable.  It has plans to ship units for testing on vehicles in the second half of 2018.

Faraday Future announced that it signed a lease on an existing automotive plant in Hanford, CA signaling the end of its plans to build its own plant from scratch in Nevada.  It plans to move into the plant in November 2017 to be able to deliver its FF91 vehicles to customers by the end of 2018.  Faraday Future continues to seek additional funding to continue its development and production plans.