US chem shares fall despite oil amid Q1 earnings

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US-listed shares of many chemical producers fell on Thursday despite a rise in oil prices following a busy day for earnings.

Shares of Dow, Olin and Sherwin-Williams fell after releasing their Q1 earnings results. Olin fell the most among the US-listed shares which ICIS follows.

In response to low demand, Dow plans to idle two polyethylene (PE) plants in the US, one PE plant in Argentina and two elastomer plants in the US. The shutdown should last for at least 30 days.

Meanwhile, shares of Ingevity and Kraton rose sharply after each released their earnings.

The table below shows the US-listed companies followed by ICIS.

	$ Current Price	$ Change	% Change
AdvanSix	12.18	-0.14	-1.14
Axalta Coating Systems	19.74	-0.06	-0.30
Braskem	7.85	-0.44	-5.31
Celanese	83.07	-3.27	-3.79
Dow	36.69	-0.78	-2.08
DuPont	47.02	-1.15	-2.39
Eastman	60.51	-2.96	-4.66
HB Fuller	36.79	-1.36	-3.56
Huntsman	16.81	-0.66	-3.78
Ingevity	51.92	7.00	15.58
Kraton	15.61	2.31	17.37
Kronos Worldwide	9.49	-0.57	-5.67
LyondellBasell	57.95	-1.98	-3.30
Methanex	15.88	-0.49	-2.99
NewMarket	411.44	-9.39	-2.23
Olin	13.35	-2.89	-17.80
PolyOne	23.29	-1.09	-4.47
PPG	90.83	-5.05	-5.27
RPM International	66.41	-1.26	-1.86
Sherwin-Williams	536.37	-2.49	-0.46
Stepan	95.40	-3.21	-3.26
Chemours	11.73	-0.73	-5.86
Trinseo	20.45	-1.90	-8.50
Tronox	6.82	-0.58	-7.84
Univar	14.52	-0.39	-2.62
Venator Materials	1.27	-0.19	-13.01
Westlake Chemical	43.45	-3.18	-6.82

The general stock markets also fell, as shown in the table below.

	30-Apr	Change	%
Dow Jones Industrial Average	24,345.72	-288.14	-1.17
S&P 500	2,912.43	-27.08	-0.92
Dow Jones US Chemicals Index	535.29	-15.33	-2.78
S&P 500 Chemicals Industry Index	539.40	-14.06	-2.54

The indices fell after the US Department of Labor reported that jobless claims reached 3.84m for the week ending on 25 April.

In oil markets, futures rose as a new supply-cut agreement is scheduled to take effect on 1 May among OPEC and its allies.

	Thursday	Wednesday	%
Brent	25.27	22.54	12.1
WTI	18.84	15.06	25.1

In chemical markets, the US May benzene contract price fell by more than 20%.

US May butadiene (BD) contracts fell as demand remained low from tyre producers.

Dow is seeking April price decreases for PE.

In Europe, GDP in the eurozone had fallen in the first quarter by 3.8%, the largest fall since the series began; while in the wider 27-country EU GDP fell by 3.5%.

BASF also reported on Thursday its Q1 results issuing a very sombre guidance for Q2.

Clariant, Wacker Chemie, and major Shell released gloomy statements about the upcoming months.

Within the olefins chain, May contracts for propylene and ethylene posted large falls.

In Asia, chemical shares rose with oil prices.

Japan’s industrial output fell to its lowest since January 2013 in March 2020 on coronavirus-related disruptions at factories and poor overseas demand.

China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dipped to 50.8 in April from 52.0 in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

The April PMI reading is above the 50.0 mark which indicates expansion in the manufacturing economy.

Focus article by Al Greenwood

Additional reporting by Morgan Condon and Nurluqman Suratman

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