US chem shares fall with oil prices

HOUSTON (ICIS)–US-listed shares of chemical companies fell on Wednesday as oil prices declined.

Prices for petrochemicals tend to rise and fall with those for oil. In addition, chemical producers in the US tend to lose their cost advantage when oil prices fall in relation to gas-based feedstock.

The table below shows oil prices.

	6-May	5-May	%
Brent	29.72	30.97	-4.0
WTI	23.99	24.56	-2.3

The table below shows the US-listed shares covered by ICIS.

	$ Current Price	$ Change	% Change
AdvanSix	11.30	-0.91	-7.45
Axalta Coating Systems	18.45	-0.85	-4.40
Braskem	7.11	-0.31	-4.18
Celanese	77.58	-0.43	-0.55
Dow	31.96	-1.41	-4.23
DuPont	44.04	-0.65	-1.45
Eastman	59.53	-0.58	-0.96
HB Fuller	34.13	-0.46	-1.33
Huntsman	14.65	-0.71	-4.62
Ingevity	45.29	-1.31	-2.81
Kraton	13.78	-0.78	-5.36
Kronos Worldwide	9.19	0.02	0.22
LyondellBasell	52.11	-2.74	-5.00
Methanex	14.58	-0.19	-1.29
NewMarket	418.25	0.37	0.09
Olin	10.74	-0.83	-7.17
PolyOne	21.50	-0.59	-2.67
PPG	88.80	0.53	0.60
RPM International	66.45	-0.24	-0.36
Sherwin-Williams	524.02	-8.67	-1.63
Stepan	92.98	1.10	1.20
Chemours	12.32	0.14	1.15
Trinseo	18.01	-0.30	-1.64
Tronox	6.89	0.08	1.17
Univar	13.22	-0.40	-2.94
Venator Materials	1.39	0.12	9.45
Westlake Chemical	39.61	-3.14	-7.35

Among the gainers, shares of Venator Materials rose after the company released its Q1 earnings. Operating income rose year on year.

Shares of Chemours also rose after it reported a rise in Q1 income.

Other companies releasing earnings include Methanex, Axalta Coating Systems and Occidental Petroleum.

Methanex warned that demand for methanol could drop further in the second quarter.

Axalta said April and May sales volumes are projected down 50% year on year because of the coronavirus.

Chemical shares performed worse than the general market, as shown in the following table.

	6-May	Change	%
Dow Jones Industrial Average	23,664.64	-218.45	-0.91
S&P 500	2,848.42	-20.02	-0.70
Dow Jones US Chemicals Index	515.91	-7.45	-1.42
S&P 500 Chemicals Industry Index	520.71	-7.44	-1.41

In Europe, chemical stocks fell slightly.

In Asia, chemical shares were mixed.

Additional reporting by Anna Matherne and Stefan Baumgarten, Tom Brown and Nurluqman Suratman

Visit the ICIS coronavirus topic page for analysis of the impact on chemical markets and links to latest news.