Americas top stories: weekly summary

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Here are the top stories from ICIS News from the week ended 9 February:

Chem stocks drop as Dow falls more than 6% during the day
Chemical stocks fell as the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by more than 6% on Monday, before the index recovered to close at a decline of 4.60%.

ExxonMobil’s new US cracker mechanically complete, commissioning underway
ExxonMobil’s new ethane cracker at Baytown, Texas, is mechanically complete, with commissioning progressing well, the US-based energy and chemicals major said on Tuesday.

Formosa declares force majeure on US LLDPE, HMW PE
Formosa Plastics USA has declared force majeure on all of its linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) and Formolene bimodal high molecular weight (HMW) polyethylene (PE) products, it said in a Wednesday customer letter.

Chems fall again as Dow falls 4.15%
Chemical stocks plunged on Thursday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average had a second large sell-off this week, falling by 4.15% percent.

North America Q1 TiO2 prices move higher on supply, demand pressure
North America Q1 TiO2 contract prices settled higher on Friday on continued pressure from healthy demand and tight supply.