Tesla Sends Driverless Stock Index Higher

For the third week in a row, the Driverless Transportation D20 Stock Index advanced, rising nearly 1.3 percent to finish at 142.197. This broad-based advance brought 18 gainers and two losers — Google (GOOG) and KVH Industries (KVHI). Google was the week’s absolute loser, dropping $10.06, or 1.8 percent, to end the week at $538.95. KVH, the mobile data services provider, lost 1.9 percent, to be the leading D20 percentage loser this week and finishing at $12.86.

Tesla (TSLA) made up almost all of last week’s loss by gaining $13.34, or 6.6 percent, to end the week as the absolute winner at $217.11. China’s BYD Company (BYDDY) gained impressively, adding 15.2 percent, or $1.14, to finish at $8.66. Time will tell if Warren Buffett’s $230 million investment in 2008 in this Chinese Electric Vehicle company will pay off. Volkswagen (VLKAY) had a strong week, rising 6.2 percent, or $3.01, to finish at $51.36 for the first time since the inception of the D20 Index. Volkswagen continues to challenge Toyota for the global top spot in car production finishing 2014 at 10.14 million vehicles compared to Toyota’s 10.23 million.

This week we compare the D20 Index to the NASDAQ ETF CARZ, an exchange traded fund that tracks the NASDAQ OMX Global Auto Index. CARZ is a modified market-capitalization weighted index designed to track the performance of the largest and most liquid companies engaged in manufacturing of automobiles. Its top five holdings are stock from Daimler AG (DDAIF), General Motors (GM), Honda (HMC), Toyota (TM) and Ford (F). The D20 Index will track closely to the CARZ price increases or decreases because five of the top 10 holdings in CARZ are reflected in the D20 Index.

 

 

Visit the D20 Stock Index page for more information.