Most US chem shares rise amid easing lockdown measures, news of reopenings

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Most US-listed shares of chemical companies rose on Tuesday with the general stock market.

Despite social unrest and race protests in many US states, the market found optimism in news of lockdown rollbacks and economies reopening.

US oil producers expect that energy demand will continue rising as lockdown restrictions are lifted.

The table below shows oil prices in $/bbl.

Product	Latest	Previous	Change
Brent August	39.57	38.32	1.25
WTI July	36.81	35.44	1.37

The following shows the US-listed shares followed by ICIS.

Name	$ Current Price	$ Change	% Change
AdvanSix Inc	12.75	0.64	5.28
Axalta Coating Systems Ltd	23.33	0.03	0.13
Braskem SA ADR repr Class A	11.39	0.97	9.31
Celanese Corp Class A	92.63	3.29	3.68
Dow Inc	40.6	1.99	5.15
DuPont de Nemours Inc	52.65	1.77	3.48
Eastman Chemical Co	70.93	2.37	3.46
H.B. Fuller Co	39.86	1.69	4.43
Huntsman Corp	18.88	0.45	2.44
Ingevity Corp	56.3	2.69	5.02
Kraton Corp	16.19	0.81	5.27
Kronos Worldwide Inc	10.05	0.19	1.93
LyondellBasell Industries NV	68.39	3.05	4.67
Methanex Corp	18.04	0.4	2.27
NewMarket Corp	428.76	-1.41	-0.33
Olin Corp	13.28	0.76	6.07
PolyOne Corp	26.79	1.2	4.69
PPG Industries Inc	107.52	4.15	4.01
RPM International Inc	75.18	1.08	1.46
Sherwin-Williams Co	597.11	14.65	2.52
Stepan Co	98.77	1.63	1.68
The Chemours Co	14.23	0.66	4.86
Trinseo SA	21.83	0.83	3.95
Tronox Holdings PLC	7.05	0.04	0.57
Univar Solutions Inc	16.44	0.61	3.85
Venator Materials PLC	1.53	0.16	11.68
Westlake Chemical Corp	51.22	3.02	6.27

The general stock market rose, as shown in the table below.

Name	2 June	Change	%
Dow Jones Industrial Average	25,742.65	267.63	1.05
S&P 500	3,080.82	25.09	0.82
Dow Jones US Chemicals Index	597.05	13.03	2.23
S&P 500 Chemicals Industry Index	601.12	13.26	2.26

US May ethylene contracts settled at an increase of 3.5 cents/lb on higher spot prices and cash costs, after a six-month decline.

Latin American polyethylene terephthalate (PET) markets weakened as the pandemic lingers.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) plans to renew and refresh its flagship Responsible Care programme focusing on health, safety and environment (HSE) in a rapidly changing political and social landscape, its CEO Chris Jahn said.

In Europe, chemicals stocks rallied amid jumps of nearly 4% for Germany’s DAX index and strong bumps for other bourses in the region as gathering economic momentum overpowered geopolitical unease and a week of protests in the US.

Asian petrochemical shares were mostly higher on Tuesday as muted action from the US president on the dispute with China over Hong Kong raised further hopes of a global economic recovery.

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