Weekly Bot Brief 9-17-2021

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

- Victor Hugo

Bots in The News:

In a trading week that was marked by extensive volatility, the week-end result seemed relatively benign. In fact, the more volatile Bot Index bested the S & P 500 by declining almost half of the broader index. The Bot Index fell a mere 24 basis points versus the decline of 57 basis points by the S & P 500.

Again, it was the Japanese companies that carried the strength of the Bot Index as they avoided the political dramas that plagued the U.S. markets. Of the four names that provided some market strength, two were Japanese companies. Yaskawa Electric rose almost three percent while fellow Japanese company OMRON Corp. jumped 3.5%

Brooks Automation rose another 2.43% following its 7.31 increase of the prior week. We reported that the stock had experienced a technical breakthrough in last week’s Bot Brief. This week, however, Investopedia included the company in an article entitled, “Robotic Stocks With the Most Momentum. Clearly, the headlines helped the stock’s momentum.

Tesla rounded out the gainers as Elon Musk offered an olive branch to China by indicating the competitiveness of his EV counterparts in China. In recent weeks, Tesla has been the scapegoat for a number of negative political discussions in mainland China. The stock was also buoyed by a Barron’s article entitled, “Tesla Stock is Slowly Making Headway, A Case for $1,000. The stock closed at $759 and change.

Of the losing shareholders the worst centered on the continued fall of AeroVironment since the stock took another 8.10% hit this week as it was announced that the drone strike in Afghanistan that was touted as a successful mission against a bomb attack was incorrectly perpetrated against innocent civilians. Investors too this as a potential deterrent to the future use of drone warfare

Brain Waves:

In addition to the aforementioned concessions that Mr. Elon Musk provided to his Chinese competitors, Musk celebrated yet another successful launch of his SpaceX missions. In this latest effort four non-astronauts were sent on a spectacular high-altitude revolution without the inclusion of a trained pilot (probably adding validity to self-driving Tesla EV’s).

然而,这是他最近的努力,Nuralink that captured the attention within the world of health-care. Nuralink’s mission is to provide those individuals with back and brain injuries to recover, at least, a portion of their former physical and intellectual capabilities. By using a small disk like implant that carries tiny threads which transmit more than 1,000 electrodes that stimulate the brain,replacing part of the functions of the traditional brain to nerve to muscle reactions. It is thought that, in the very near future, the threads from the disk will carry the algorithms, the spike detections, battery and telemetry to allow the return to some semblance of a normal reaction from a visual stimulation. To thousands of patients with brain injuries the success of this endeavor will be a God-send for their future life.

Member: American Economic Association, Society of Professional Journalists, United States Press Association. Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts, Robotic Industries Association, 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 views 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 material presented.