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2016_07_29-D20-versus-Dow-SnP-weekly-percentage-change-since-08_28_2015

Blackberry’s Double-Digit Gain Drives D20

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Led by Blackberry’s (BBRY) and Valeo’s (VLEEY) double-digit percentage gains, the Driverless Transportation (D20) Weekly Stock Index jumped nearly 3 percent, closing the week at 155.17. That’s three weeks in a row the D20 has soundly beat the Dow Industrials and the S&P 500. Both the major indexes had down weeks.

Blackberry’s stock price jumped 10.5 percent on news that it released its second Android-based phone called the DTEK50. Although many in the market continue to plead with Blackberry to get out of the phone handset market, the DTEK50 is actually a step in the right direction. The DTEK50 was designed by Blackberry but it’s the first phone that Blackberry had manufactured by someone else.

One piece of bad news for Blackberry, Apple has hired the former head of Blackberry’s automotive software group and the founder of QNX for its driverless car project. What is this going to mean for Blackberry’s QNX, one of the leaders in the Automotive Operating System Market?

The D20 price loser last week was Ford (F), dropping $1.18, or 8.5 percent, to close the week at $12.66. Ford’s drop was driven by a 3 percent decline in Q2 earnings, a drop unexpected by market analysts.

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

Up and Comers:

Fleet productivity firm Automile raised $6.2 million in a funding round led by Jason Lemkin’s SaaStr Fund. Automile calls itself an IoT company that uses the cloud to help fleets lower fuel consumption, track mileage and increase productivity. Lemkin may be best known for founding electronic signature house EchoSign.

2016_07_22-D20-weekly-stock-index

TomTom Helps D20 Beat Dow and S&P 500

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With 16 gainers, three losers and one unchanged, the Driverless Transportation Stock Index (D20) last week easily out ran the Dow and the S&P 500 and finished over 150 for the first time since January 1. While the Dow gained 0.3 percent to finish the week at 18,570.85 and the S&P 500 moved up 0.6 percent to close at 2175.03, neither could match the D20’s 1.8 percent gain.

Prompted by a fivefold increase in quarterly profits, TomTom (TOM2) led the price gainers with a jump of nearly 6 percent and finished last week at €7.10 a share. TomTom continues to try to reduce its dependency on hardware products while growing its recurring revenue line of content and services. Blackberry (BBRY) and TomTom should share notes as this sounds like a page out of Blackberry’s turnaround strategy.

Elon Musk’s much publicized release of the Tesla Master Plan (Part II) had little positive effect on Tesla (TSLA) stock as it gained a meager $1.87 last week. Musk lays out an integrated strategy of solar energy collection, battery storage, and the design and production of a wide range of autonomous electric vehicles, all under the Tesla brand.

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

Up and Comers:

Autonomous-fleet management start-up BestMile raised $2.5 million in seed funding. The firm is a spin off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. The funders were “led by a super-angel from the Zurich region and completed by the US venture capital firm Perot Jain, L.P., Forticap SA based in Geneva, and private investors from Switzerland, Germany and Silicon Valley,” according to a press release from Lausanne-based BestMile.  

BestMile is a collaborator on the SmartShuttle project in Sion, Switzerland that began in June (See “Driverless SmartShuttle is No Cuckoo Clock”). The Navya vehicle uses Velodyne’s LiDAR Pucks, GPS RTK navigation devices, stereovision cameras, inertial navigation systems and odometry.

2016_07_15-D20-weekly-stock-index

D20 Doubles Dow, Triples S&P 500

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Nineteen gainers and one loser pushed the Driverless Transportation Stock Index (D20) up 4.6 percent last week, more than doubling the Dow’s 2 percent increase and tripling the S&P 500’s 1.5 percent bump up. The D20 closed Friday at 148.18, up a whopping 6.6 points.

Among the 19 winners, the average price increase was 5.2 percent with the biggest weekly price jump prize going to Japan’s Renesas Electronics (TYO:6723). It leapt to ¥585, an increase of nearly 13 percent.

Blackberry (BBRY) was the only price loser last week, dropping a miniscule $0.01 to $6.65, amid confusing signals about how and when it might exit its money losing phone hardware business. Its Software & Services segment, which includes its QNX platform that is widely used in vehicular applications, continues to grow nicely and is now larger and much more profitable than its Mobility Solutions segment which holds its phone handset business.

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

Up and Comers:

Investments in privately-held auto tech firms reached $450 million through June, a record pace for the first six months of the year, according to CB Insights. The $200 million invested in Zoox accounted for a healthy part of the dollar total in the 36 firms. The auto tech category includes assisted driving/autonomous software; driver safety tools; connected vehicle/driving data; fleet telematics; vehicle-to-vehicle communication; and auto cybersecurity.

Bill Ford’s Fontinalis Partners raised $100 million for a new fund, bringing its committed capital to $165 million. Fontinalis says it invests in “next-generation mobility.” Current portfolio includes Lyft, Inrix, Turo, nuTonomy, more.

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SAIC and Chinese Internet Retailer Alibaba Unveil ‘Internet Car’

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Jennifer van der Kleut

Chinese Internet retail giant Alibaba-often called the Amazon of China-has unveiled its first car, which they are calling their “Internet car.”

The car, an RX5 sport utility vehicle, was built by China’s biggest automaker, SAIC, and will run on YunOS software developed by Alibaba.

In addition to being able to connect with other devices, the OS’Car RX5 will offer premium alibaba-internet-car-interiorinfotainment features such as finding parking spaces and nearby gas stations, and even making restaurant reservations.

What’s more, multiple passengers will be able to log in to their individual Alibaba accounts to access music, shopping and more.

Industry analysts are already calling the OS’Car RX5 a strong contender when it comes to competing with the likes of Google, Apple and Blackberry, who have been working on infotainment systems like Android Auto, Apple Play and QNX, respectively, for years.

“Smart operating systems become the second engine of cars, while data is the new fuel,” Dr. Wang Jian, chairman of Alibaba’s Technology Steering Committee, said in a statement quoted by Alizila.

“It’s moving from the mobile smart phone connectivity to full-car connectivity to the internet,” said Steven Crumb, executive director of Genivi, an open-source infotainment cooperative, to AFR.com. “Even though you’ve got Google and others working on the autonomous vehicle, the way to get the autonomous vehicle is through the connected car. That’s the stepping stone to get where we are today to fully autonomous.”

The car will reportedly retail for 148,800 yuan, or $22,300 U.S.

 

2016_05_27-D20-Weekly-Stock-Index

A Wow Week as All D20 Stocks Rise

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Wow. All 20 of the Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index component stocks were winners last week, sending the index up more than 3 percent to close Friday at 149.58. Now that’s a nice start to a three-day weekend.

The best percentage performer for the week was Blackberry (BBRY), gaining nearly 6.2 percent and closing Friday at 7.23. No substantive news but BBRY received huge press as Hillary Clinton’s favorite email device while Secretary of State. She used it for personal and official business, a wow of a no-no.

The big story, again, was Nvidia (NVDA). The stock of the graphic processing unit (GPU) chipmaker has more than doubled in value since last summer when the D20 was updated. NVDA closed last week at 45.90, up from 22.73 on August 28, 2015. Time to sell?

Another interesting story was Volkswagen (VLKPY). The auto OEM is reportedly close to finalizing a settlement of its diesel emissions scandal in the US, and it announced a $300 million investment in Tel Aviv based Gett, a ride-sharing app looking to expand in Europe.

Last week’s D20 performance topped the 2 percent rise in the Dow Industrials and 2.3 percent increase in the S&P 500 Index.

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

D20 Stock Index week ending December 25, 2015

Blackberry Leads D20 Up - Again

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Nineteen gainers powered the Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index as it surpassed the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 for the second consecutive week. The D20 broke the 160 point barrier, rising 2.9 percent to finish the short week at 163.03. The Dow added 2.5 percent to end the week at 17552.17 while the S&P 500 moved up 2.8 percent and closed at 2060.99.

Blackberry (BBRY) led the D20 for the second week in a row, gaining 5.7 percent and closing at $9.10. This has been a turbulent year for Blackberry as it attempted to shed its reliance on its shrinking smart phone hardware revenue and build its sales in enterprise security and vehicle automation software. Reports are that CEO John Chen will make news regarding Blackberry’s QNX embedded OS for connected cars during the CES 2016 in Las Vegas in January.

The D20’s loser this week was the same as last week’s, the Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas Electronics (TSE: 6732). Renesas fell 2.4 percent to 762 Yen as rumors of an acquisition by Germany’s Infineon was squelched by top officials.  Then, on Christmas Day, Renesas CEO Takao Endo resigned.

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

D20 Stock Index ending week of December 18, 2015

Contrary D20 Rises as Dow, S&P Drop

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The Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index advanced this week, contrary to the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 which both declined. With 13 gainers and seven losers the D20 added 1.7 points to close the week at 158.44, up 1.1 percent. The index of the automated and connected auto industry hovers near its high, showing investor faith in the technology remains strong.

Both the Dow and the S&P 500 gained ground early in the week as the Fed announced its first interest rate hike since 2006. Later in the week, both indexes gave it all back and more with sagging crude oil prices and mixed economic signals troubling the markets. The Dow lost 0.8 percent to end the week at 17128.55 while the S&P 500 lost 0.3 percent and finished at 2005.55.

Reacting to rival NXP Semiconductors’ (NXPI) announcement that it will purchase Freescale Semiconductor Ltd. (FSL) to become the largest semiconductor manufacturer for the automotive industry, Renesas (TYO:6732) lost 6.1 percent of its price, closing at 781 Yen per share.

Three stocks shone for the contrary D20 this week. Tesla (TSLA) gained 6.2 percent to finish at $230.46; BYD (BYDDY) added 7.1 percent and ended the week at $10.73; and Blackberry (BBRY) topped all gainers by jumping 12.3 percent and closing at $8.61 after announcing a sizable increase in software sales.

Please visit the Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index page to learn more about it and its component stocks.

D20 Stock Index Week Ending October 9, 2015

Blackberry’s Big Bump Leads D20 Index Upwards

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Driverless Transportation

Buoyed by Blackberry (BBRY), the Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index rose 4.8 percent to end last week at 154.14. Gainers outnumbered losers 17 to three as the D20 Index outpaced both the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 Index. The Dow added 3.7 percent to finish the week at 17084.49 while the S&P 500 climbed 3.3 percent to close at 2014.89.

Under questions about its ability to deliver the planned sales volume of its highly acclaimed new Model X, Tesla’s stock price (TSLA) fell 10.9 percent to close the week at $220.69 and be this week’s largest D20 loser. The Model X has won rave reviews for its styling and technological features but skeptics continue to doubt Tesla’s ability to continue to scale its production capabilities to support its lofty valuation.

Blackberry was the D20 largest gainer for the week, adding 17 percent to its share price and closing the week at $7.42. CEO John Chen, has shifted the company away from phone handsets towards software, including its QNX division which creates the market leading operating system for cars infotainment systems. The combination of QNX’s current large car infotainment system market share and its background in self-driving military grade technology positions Blackberry perfectly to take advantage of growing interest by automakers in advanced self-driving systems.

Other double-digit gainers for the D20 last week were Volkswagen (VLKPY) whose stock price rebounded 15.2 percent, Daimler (DDIAF) whose price climbed 11.9 percent, and Volvo (VOLVY) whose price rose 10.5 percent.

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

D20 Index vs Dow Jones week ending July 31, 2015

Quiet D20 Index Spends Week at the Beach

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Driverless Transportation

The Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index had a quiet week as we neared August, rising only 0.34 points, or 0.2 percent, to finish at 153.016. Gainers outnumbered losers 11 to nine. This was the first week in the last six where Google (GOOG) didn’t mathematically dominate the D20 Index by being its absolute or percentage gainer or loser. Those leadership honors went to four other firms:

One notable streak was extended as BYD Company (BYDDY) fell for the seventh straight week. Although Volkswagen (VLKPY) announced that it had edged out Toyota for the title of largest automaker worldwide in the first half of 2015, it still lost $1.42 to close the week at $40.02.

Blackberry was strong, adding $0.41 or 5.6 percent, amid a lot of discussion in the press about how it should get out of the phone business. Other pundits think that the driverless car market will be Blackberry’s salvation as its QNX operating system continues to win market share away from automobile infotainment system rivals.

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

d20June15a

Mobileye Sees the Driverless 20 Index to a Rebound

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Driverless Transportation

The Driverless Transportation (D20) Stock Index rebounded last week by adding 1.80 points to finish at 148.143. There were 14 gainers and six losers. The 1.2 percent D20 Index gain outpaced both the Dow Jones Industrial Index, which rose 0.3 percent, and the S&P 500 Index which rose 0.1 percent. The D20 Index is more volatile than the broadly-based Dow and S&P 500.

Mobileye (MBLY) led the D20 gainers with a whopping 11.8 percent gain, or $5.42, to end the week at $51.56. Mobileye garners good press and analyst praise and remains the only pure play in the D20 as the only products it creates are for driver assistance or autonomous driving.

Blackberry (BBRY) continued its four week slide losing a D20 Index leading 5.3 percent to end the week at $9.23. Nvidia (NVDA) was the D20 Index point loser, dropping $1.15 to close Friday at $21.11.

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