The Bot Brief

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

- Victor Hugo

Bots in The News:

While microeconomic news dominated the previous week’s robotic stocks’ performance, this week it was macroeconomic concerns that dropped the market. The Bot Index and the S & P 500 each declined exactly 1.16% due to a weaker than expected jobs number and Fed minutes that indicated that, while the maintenance of the Fed rate was universally approved by the Governors, several expressed a desire to continue inflation fighting measures.

The coming week will have CPI and PPI reports that are expected to indicate a slowdown in the rate of inflation. If they disappoint in the month-to-month comparisons, the Fed hawks will likely force another increase in the July 26 meeting. Also, impacting the market this week will be the Univ of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index which will provide another picture as to the course of the economy.

There were only two stocks which dominated the performance spectrum in trading last week. On the positive side was Oceaneering International, whose investors cheered a 15.13% increase. The stock benefited from the price of WTI crude above $70 for a prolonged period of time as well as a couple of articles from Wall Street providing acclaim for the company’s prospects. Simply Wall Street published an analysis entitled, ‘Oceaneering International Is Doing the Right Things to Multiply its Share Price’. On top of that Zacks Equity Research added the company to its ‘Strong Buy List’ on Friday.

Taiwan based Hiwin Technologies declined nearly 10 percent to lead the losers last week. In the face of the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s visit to China this week, the Chinese military sent 13 aircraft and 6 naval vessels in the waters around Taiwan. Relations between the three entities have been strained in recent weeks, leading the U.S. to sell $440 million in ordinance to the Taiwanese government, a move that prompted CCP leader XI to ‘stress efforts to break new ground for theater command development and war preparedness’.

Blockage Remediation by Robot:

Each year more than one million operations are performed to unclog coronary blockages. Many of these operations require hours of surgery using catheters in blood vessels. Due to the complex shape of vessels and the need for pinpoint accuracy that must occur from external X-Rays, the procedures are expensive, require precision surgeons and long operations.

A team of South Korean physicians, however, has successfully utilized a miniature robot to,
“successfully navigate autonomously within an artery and back to its extraction point.” The robots are untethered and are guided by magnets to inflate a balloon to open a clog, suction out blood clots or deliver drugs directly to the affected area.

虽然the successful experiments were conducted utilizing pigs, the company (InterMag) plans on applying for permission to conduct human clinical trials presently. Since pig parts are already in frequent use in various heart surgeries, it is hopeful that the human application of the procedure will be likely successful.

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 companies 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.