The Bot Brief

"There is no force on earth more powerful than an idea whose time has come."     

- Victor Hugo

The Bot Brief: 

With some degree of clarity regarding the imposition of tariffs and a strong jobs report on Friday, the markets continued their week-long expansion. The S & P 500 gained nearly 3% while the Bot Index increased 2.31%. The bots were restrained by having four of its Japanese components in negative territory plus the 1.88% decline in Apple stock. While since inception in 2016 the Bot Index has outperformed the broader market, in more recent times its relative performance has slipped. As noted in the graph below; after having a strong early showing in the reposted 2020’s decade, recent numbers have shown a different story. Actually, in the month of April, the Bot Index was overcome by the S & P 500 and the cumulative returns for the partial decade favor the broad market’s 76.02% over the bot’s 72.13%.

There were only four strong performers within the Bot Index this week. The best performer was Hiwin Corp. with a 12.5% leap and two other domestic companies that reported earnings better than expected. Cognex Corp. jumped 6.38% following its first quarter’s EPS of US$0.14 were better than expected, beating analyst predictions by 10%. And Oceaneering International rose 6.73% after it reported $.43 earnings versus $.14 last year and approximately 10% above expectations.

Four Japanese holdings declined from the prior week and contributed to the bot’s underperformance. Yaskawa Electric fell 3.79%, OMRON Corp. declined .16% and Fanuc Corp. slid a little over 1%.

Salty Batteries:

Two Chinese educational institutions have worked together to explore the opportunity to improve the performance of aluminum-ion batteries. Hitherto fore faced with corrosion, safety and longevity issues, aluminum batteries provided little advantage over traditional electricity storage medium. However, researchers have found that stabilization may occur with the utilization of inert aluminum fluoride salt to liquid electrolytes which could overcome the problems. Touted as much safer than lithium batteries, cheaper, with more readily available materials and considerably longer charging life, the new aluminum batteries could become a major advancement in energy storage. While it may take a while to catch hold, there seems to be major emphasis on the development of alternatives to traditional batteries.

Member: American Economic Association, Society of Professional Journalists, United States Press Association. Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts, Robotic Industries Association (now A3 Automation), Member IEEE.

The Bot Brief is a weekly newsletter designed for economists, investment specialists, journalists, and academicians. It receives no remuneration from any company that may from time to time be featured in the brief and its commentaries, analysis, opinions, and research represent the subjective view of Balcones Investment Research, LLC. Due to the complex and rapidly changing nature of the subject matter, the company makes no assurances as to the absolute accuracy of the material presented.