Q2 2024 Index Performance Update

The new weights of The U.S. and Global Innovation Indexes will take effect on April 1, 2024.

Q1 2024 Index Performance Update

Q4 2023 Index Performance Update

Although the U.S. economy continues to face downturn pressure due to increased interest rate, inflation, and the restart of student loan payments, consumer spending has increased by 5.8% in August compared to last year, according to the Commerce Department. As consumers tend to prioritize short-term needs over long-term goals under the current high-interest rate environment, the Innovation U.S. and Global Indexes increased weights in consumer-based industries including Consumer Durables and Information, Retail, and Finance. Innovative companies held by the indexes are anticipated to generate outperformance in the long run due to their unique advantages over their peers.

Q3 2023 Index Performance Update

With the calm down of the U.S. mainstream inflation, consumer confidence and consumption has been boosted and companies with innovative assets have been outperforming relative to the market. Moving into the 3rd quarter of 2023, the innovation United States index has witnessed significant weight increases in the Consumer Non-Durables, Distribution Services, and Industrial Services sectors, while the Global and Trade War indexes start to overweight innovative companies in the Health Technology, Consumer Services, and Technology Services sectors.

Q2 2023 Index Performance Update

In spite of the recent turmoil in the U.S. banking system, the innovation global and trade war index has still witnessed outperformance to their benchmarks. Moving into the second quarter of 2023, the indexes weights have tilted into the electronic technology, industrial services, and consumer durables sector, where innovation and technological advances have played significant roles in separating winners and losers in the same competing cohorts.

Q1 2023 Index Performance Update

The innovation indexes have witnessed significant outperformance compared to their benchmarks as of YtD 2022, with the innovation α® US index outperforming the Russell 1000 index by 4.67% and the Innovation α® Global index outperforming the MSCI ACWI Index by 1.53%. More details on the index weights and constituents changes are demonstrated in the following link.

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Q4 2022 Performance Highlights

The Innovation United States Index has witnessed significant outperformance since the beginning of the last quarter of 2022. The outperformance mainly concentrates on the airline and energy industry, including flagship companies such as BA-US and BKR-US.

Q2 2022 Index Performance Update

2nd Quarter 2022 Performance Highlights

During Q2 2022, the U.S. economy has witnessed significant spikes in volatility due to the impacts of increasing inflation, the supply chain crisis in China, and federal adjustment of interest rates. Large U.S. technology companies, such as Apple and Tesla, are among the biggest victims of this stock market turmoil. However, the M-CAM INAU index has outperformed the market by around 2.3% during Q2 2022. The outperformance mainly comes from INAU’s weight tilt onto the innovative companies in the energy and healthcare industry, such as Halliburton Company (HAL-US) and Abbott Laboratories (ABTUS)

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Q1 2022 Index Rebalance Update

January 3^rd, 2022 Rebalance Highlights

While the recovering trends of the U.S. and global economy continue during the last quarter of 2021, the stock market has witnessed significant fluctuations mainly due to the increasing cases of COVID variants and the instability of government economic stimulus programs which have been largely ineffective. Global supply chains still suffer from the long-lasting chip shortage, which has visibly impacted corporate performance across different industries, such as electronic technology, biotechnology, and communication.  Consumer supply shortages – literally empty store shelves – have been a detractor to consumer confidence at the same time inflation for consumers and producers is soaring to record levels.  Looking into 2022, The Conference Board (TCB) forecasts that the US economy will grow by 3.5%, compared to the 5.6% growth prediction for 2021. Economic concerns over the momentum of recovery, inflation, and consumer confidence are widely believed to be the key factors for the 2022 economic outlook.

The performance of the U.S. innovation index started to pick up during the last quarter of 2021. Active innovators, including Microsoft, Ford, and Applied Materials are among the top contributors for the outperformance. For the global innovation index, while most of the returns are contributed by U.S. constituents, the performances of several global innovators are remarkable. For example, Nokia Oyj shares the 5^th highest index weight (1.36%) at the beginning of Q4 2021 and returned 15.90% compared to the index average 3.21%.

Moving into Q1 2022, the U.S. and global indexes still favor active innovators with strong abilities to overcome the recent supply chain shocks and global trade frictions. For example, Ford Motor Company, which has achieved tremendous performance during Q4 2021, continues to constitute a large weight for both the U.S. and global indexes. It is expected that the company’s performance will maintain its momentum due to the positive outlook of its management team and its newly introduced product lines. From the sector classification level, the electronic technology sector remains the top-weighted sector among the U.S. and global indexes, making up over 20% of the total index weights for Q1 2022. Besides, it is noticeable to see that the health technology sector witnesses the highest weight increase for the U.S. index, with its weights increasing from 15.13% to 20.41% moving into the new quarter.

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Q4 Index Rebalance Update

October 1^1st, 2021 Rebalance Highlights

The U.S. and global economy experienced rather stable growth powered, in large part, by government interventions in the economy.  There was a partial recovery of business activities and consumer confidence across the last quarter while warning signs in high growth in Consumer and Producer Prices suggested that there may be challenges looming.  U.S. markets were rocked by small fluctuations at the beginning of September because of the invertor’s pessimistic view about China’s real estate market as well as the Fed’s future monetary stimulus policies. While S&P 500 fell 1.7% on September 19^th for the worst day since May, there is no further sign signaling that the turmoil would continue as the market rebounded quickly after the sell-off.  Investor sentiment – influenced by the Fed, by the departure of two Fed Presidents, China intervention in its credit challenges and other related risks – warns of 4^th quarter volatility.

Moving into Q4 2021, the weights of the Electronic Technology sector has slightly decreased compared to their weights at the beginning of Q3 2021. However, the sector still represents over 20% of the total weights for the U.S and Global indexes. It is noticeable to witness the weight increase in the Communication sector for both the U.S. and Global Index for 2021 Q4. The weight increase for this section is mainly contributed by the strong performance of AT&T and Verizon during the last quarter.

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Q3 Index Rebalance Highlights + Report

June 30^th, 2021 Rebalance Highlights

Summary:

As the economy fully reopens and consumer confidence continues to rise, the global economy has witnessed a tremendous surge in consumer spendings, especially in-person services. According to the forecast from The Conference Board1, the US real GDP growth will rise to 9% (annualized) in Q2 2021 and 6.6 percent (year-over-year) in 2021. Besides, another round of government spending is likely to further stimulate the economy as the White House is currently negotiating a $2 trillion infrastructure and tax plan. From a global perspective, strong signs of economic recovery emerge as S&P Global Ratings upgrades growth forecasts for Asia-Pacific to 7.3% for 2021 from 6.8% previously. Additionally, empirical data has shown that the eurozone economy is less sensitive to social-distancing restrictions than a year ago2, indicating the negative impacts of COVID-19 has been lessened.

During Q2 2021, the global innovation index has witnessed strong growth as a result of the global economic rebound. The global innovation index has returned 7.36% while its benchmark MSCI ACWI index has returned 7.21% in Q2 2021. Similar to Q1 2021, the outperformance is largely attributed to the selection effects in the Electronic Technology, Health Technology, and Producer Manufacturing sector, which were overweighted by the innovation indexes relative to their benchmarks based on M-CAM’s 2021 Q2 economic forecasts.

Moving into Q3 2021, the weights of the Electronic Technology and Health Technology sectors has slightly decreased compared to their weights at the beginning of Q2 2021. However, these two sectors still dominate the index total weights over 40% as the companies in these sectors are likely to be the direct beneficiaries of the economic recovery and government spendings. Besides, the 2021 Q3 weights of the producer manufacturing sector increased significantly for the U.S. and global economy, signaling a positive perspective on the recovery of systematic production, supply chain, and consumer confidence. For the U.S. index, the weight of the consumer Non-Durables sector has plunged by the largest (-1.83%) compared to Q2 2020. For the Global index, the largest weight drop (-0.57%) resides in the Industrial Service sector compared to Q2 2020. The weight drop of these two sectors is possibly the result of their strong outperformance during Q2 2020, which gives investors a more neutral view towards their growth moving into the third quarter.

During Q2 2021, the global innovation index has witnessed strong growth as a result of the global economic rebound. The global innovation index has returned 7.36% while its benchmark MSCI ACWI index has returned 7.21% in Q2 2021.

The full report including detailed figures and weightings can be downloaded as a PDF here

Q2 Index Rebalance Highlights + Report

March 31^st, 2021 Rebalance Highlights

Summary:

Economic activity has boomed in the U.S. and some developed countries to start 2021, generating a 6.4% jump in U.S. GDP on an annualized basis in the first quarter. Except for the 2020 Q3 economic re-open GAP surge, the 2021 Q1’s GDP growth was the best period since Q3 2003. The tremendous economic growth came across a variety of areas, including increased customer spending, fixed investment, and increased imports. Recently increased government spending (President Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan) has been a significant driver to economic recovery and customer confidence. The enhanced and accelerated precaution programs for COVID-19 also brought about hopes of further economic booms.

However, concerns related to global economic recovery remain moving into Q2 2021. For example, it is unclear whether household savings will continuously turn into spending. There were still 10 million people unemployed in the U.S. in January 2021, among which 4 million have been out of work for over six months. It has been debated whether the economic changes caused by COVID-19 could permanently reduce the value and productivity of existing capital. Besides, the drastic surge in COVID-19 cases in India raised significant concerns on the global production, supply chains, and capital movements for Q2 2021.

During Q1 2021, U.S. and Global innovation indexes have witnessed obvious outperformance relative to their benchmarks. The U.S. innovation index returned 10.31% while the Russell 1000 index returned 7.13%. The Global innovation index returned 9.21% while the MSCI World Index returned 4.72%. The outperformance is largely contributed by the Electronic Technology, Finance, and Health Technology sector, which were overweighted by the innovation indexes relative to their benchmarks based on M-CAM’s 2021 Q1 economic forecasts.

Moving into Q2 2021, Electronic Technology and Health Technology still represent the most significant sector weights in both the U.S. and Global Index.  These two sectors and their over 40% contribution to the indexes are likely to represent a direct response to COVID-19 and the short-term effects of social distancing and workplace alterations.  While the indexes reflect these market exigencies, there is no evidence that fundamentally novel innovations are arising during this time.  As a matter of fact, in the diagnostics and testing arena, most of the technologies deployed for COVID-19 are derived from relatively dated patent portfolios.  The coronavirus patent landscape of over 5,100 patents on the virus, its detection, treatments, and vaccinations have an average age of over ten years.

In summary, the COVID-19 period is providing business cases for the implementation of aging technology – not necessarily the origination of new innovation.  In the coming months, we will be monitoring the emergence of new technology and see when indicators of persistent market changes arise.

Innovation α^® Global Index & Innovation α^® United States Index

For the U.S. innovation index, the Technology Services and Producer Manufacturing sector have increased their weight by 5.71% and 1.77%, representing the top two sectors with highest weight change. The Electronic Technology and Finance sector have decreased by 5.13% and 4.62%, largely due to their peak performance during Q1 2021. The weights of Microsoft Corporation and Alphabet Inc. have increased by the largest moving into Q2 2021, signaling a positive investor prospective based on their favorable financial performance during the last quarter.

Similar to the U.S. index, the weights of the Technology Services and Producer Manufacturing sectors have surged by the largest, and the Electronic Technology and Finance sector have plummeted the largest. For individual companies, Applied Materials, Inc., and Callaway Golf Company are the top two companies with the highest weight change. In general, the expectation for Q2 2020 on market resilience fueled by innovation is generally focused on companies with diversified business sectors and supply chains, feasible and flexible management abilities on intellectual property, and the demonstrated capability in global integration. Joint efforts and innovation cooperation by healthcare technology companies from different countries are expected to face continuous challenges of COVID-19 and economic recovery.

The full report including detailed figures and weightings can be downloaded as a PDF here

Innovation α Index Q3: Global COVID-19 pandemic disruptions take a toll on the power of new innovations to drive market value

The Conference Board reports: Strongest-performing sectors in Q3 benefited from spending on existing products and services, rather than new and innovative market offerings, reports The Conference Board

• In both the U.S. and Global Innovation α Indexes, Technology Services sees the largest increase in its index weight for Q4 2020 among all sectors
• Heading into Q4, the Technology Services, Health Technology, and Electronic Technology sectors together account for nearly 50% of the Innovation α Global Index, and more than 50% of the U.S. index
• In the U.S., innovative companies in Retail Trade, Producer Manufacturing, Process Industries, Health Technology, Electronic Technology, and Consumer Non-Durables produced the largest Q3 market returns
• In Q3, the market performance of Energy Minerals, Distribution Services, and Communications lagged other sectors in the U.S.
• In the global index, Health Technology and Technology Services underperformed in Q3–in contrast to the U.S.

Click here to read the full quarterly report on PR Newswire

SARS CoV Patent Corpus Literature Review

SARS CoV (严重急性呼吸综合征相关冠状病毒) 专利语料库文献综述



The following data is being made publicly available for the Commons by M·CAM International LLC based on a series of reviews of patent literature derived from references found in:
( 基于对一系列相关专列文献的检阅，M·CAM INTERNATIONAL LLC将以下信息进行公开发布： )

A novel bat coronavirus reveals natural insertions at the S1/S2 2 cleavage site of the Spike protein and a possible recombinant 3 origin of HCoV-19 4 Hong Zhou1,8, Xing Chen2,8, Tao Hu1,8 , Juan Li1,8, Hao Song3 , Yanran Liu1 , Peihan Wang1 5 , Di Liu4 , Jing Yang5 , Edward C. Holmes6 , Alice C. Hughes2,*, Yuhai Bi5,*, Weifeng Shi1,7,*

The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2  Kristian G. Andersen^1,2*, Andrew Rambaut³, W. Ian Lipkin⁴, Edward C. Holmes⁵ & Robert F. Garry^6,7

And sequences leading to the reporting of genomic epidemiology at https://nextstrain.org/ncov
( 另外，https://nextstrain.org/ncov 此链接提供了病毒的基因链组 )

This report includes patents relevant to:
(此份报告提供了关于以下内容的相关专利)

• Polybasic cleavage site for SARS CoV with novel spike protein and ACE2 RBD
  (具有新型刺突蛋白和ACE2 RBD的SARS CoV的多碱基切割位点)
  
• O-linked glycans and SARS CoV Spike Protein Data disclosures
  (O链聚糖和SARS CoV Spike蛋白数据公开)
  
• SARS-CoV research specifically on ACE2 binding
  (针对ACE2结合的SARS-CoV研究)

Click here to download the full patent list
(点击这里下载报告全部内容。)

M·CAM Index Q1 Rebalance Report

April 1st, 2020 Rebalance Highlights

The 1st quarter of 2020 has witnessed significant global economic downturns largely catalyzed by the global outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 and its associated COVID-19 illness. International production and supply chains have been greatly impacted as COVID-19 confirmed cases rise from 314 to 517,678 from January 21st to March 28th, 2020, according to the World Health Organization’s daily reports. Concerns and fears in the global financial market, especially the U.S. market, resulted in record-breaking volatility throughout the month of March. The S&P 500 index dropped 27.60% from March 2nd to March 23rd. The U.S. stock market “circuit breaker” has been triggered 4 times during the 10 days from March 9th to March 18th. In the U.S., the number of people filing for unemployment insurance in the week ended March 21st, 2020 increased to 3.28 million, dwarfing previous highs in Labor Department reports since 1967. Consequently, a series of new economic stimulating policies has been entitled by major economic entities across the globe. According to IMF as of March 24th, in the U.S., a $2 trillion (around 10% GDP) stimulus package is being implemented, pending approval in the U.S. Congress in the coming days. An estimated 1.3 trillion RMB (1.2% of GDP) expansion plan has been approved and is being implemented by the Chinese government. Although the major financial markets have recovered temporarily during the last week of March as a response to these “crisis relief” actions, the global economic recovery outlook remains obscured.

M·CAM’s view of innovation activity by corporations around the world indicates that several companies have prioritized innovation investment in agility in manufacturing and distribution – responsiveness to concerns highlighted by the recent global supply chain uncertainty. Technology transfer as a component of global procurement continues to play a role in transactions but is generally falling out of favor in several markets. Traditional relationships in the healthcare sector have been significantly impacted by supply and demand mismatches. Industrial production, in certain cases, has been altered to meet the technical demands of technologies deemed critical to respond to the pandemic. This is noteworthy for many reasons but, principle among them is the fact that in the face of the COVID-19 situation and U.S.- China trade conflict, domestic supply of innovation is taking on an increasing relevance in markets that historically were net technology importers. Recent aerospace, defense, and communications announcements by Russia, China, and North Korea highlight the growing competitive power of international science and technology investments beginning to pay commercial dividends in technology industries.

Innovation α® Global Index & Innovation α® United States Index

Technology manufacturing and service sectors for the indexes remain strong moving into the Q2 2020 thanks to the signs of ongoing consumer spending power and confidence. Innovative companies in these sectors can be the biggest beneficiaries of the government’s economic stimulating policies. The weight of the Consumer Non-Durables sector also increased significantly for both of the indexes for Q2, possibly due to the boosted sales of groceries during the pandemic outbreak and their relatively stable financial market performance during the crisis. Additionally, the Q2 weights meet our expectation of favoring companies that have received government patronage or make collaborations with other entities to relieve the COVID-19 crisis. For example, General Electric (GE-US) has partnered with other companies like 3M and Ford to manufacture respirators and ventilators to combat the coronavirus since late March. Its index weight has been set to 3.81% and 1.12% for the United States and Global Indexes respectively for Q2, compared to their 1% and 0.83% company weight average.

In general, the expectation for the first quarter of 2020 of market resilience fueled by innovation is generally focused on companies with diversified business sectors and supply chains, feasible and flexible management abilities in intellectual property, and demonstrated capability in global integration. In the global market, it is particularly noteworthy to see that non-energy minerals suppliers are expected to continue to place more innovation value add in their operations suggesting that the market is beginning to realize that how natural resources are supplied and prepared is becoming increasingly dependent on both materials and process innovation.

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Conference Board Q1 2020 Index Update

• The most innovative companies in the Innovation α Index saw a large decline in financial market performance as the COVID-19 pandemic spread.
• Electronic Technology, Technology Services and Consumer Nondurables are gaining dominance among US sectors, especially those that can provide innovative solutions to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In the US, the performance of Distribution Services, Technology Services, Retail Trade, and Consumer Non-Durables sectors was the least negative; however, the Distribution Services and Retail Trade sectors will see a reduced weight in the index going forward.
• Despite global volatility in stock markets, globally the performance of the Retail Trade sector essentially held steady in Q1.

In Q1 2020, The Conference Board Innovation α Index powered by M•CAM for the United States declined by 23 percent and was down nearly 14 percent from a year ago. At the same time, the parallel global Innovation α Index, which tracks innovative companies worldwide, declined by 24 percent, and was down by 14 percent over a year ago. However, the reweighting of sectors in the index is pointing at potential benefits for innovative companies that can help tackle or offset the negative effects from COVID-19.

In this type of supply-side crisis, obviously no sector goes unscathed and this includes the most innovative companies in the United States and around the world.

Bart Van Ark, Executive Vice President and Chief Economist at The Conference Board

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