Chemical Stocks Rebound

At the end of a week of gloom and doom, stocks are finally on the rebound on Friday. Taking the cue, chemical shares too are on their way up after surviving a terrible Thursday when, according to AP, most of them took a nosedive following the announcement by four companies of force majeures -- a legal clause that excuses a party from liabilities for not being able to fulfill its obligations due to unforeseen developments -- thanks to the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Ike.

But they threw off their shackles on Friday. Dupont (DD - Analyst Report), which fell 46 cents to $45.24 a day earlier, was up by 3.77% to $47.67. Keeping it company was Dow Chemical (DOW - Analyst Report), the only one to have bucked the pullback on Thursday, with a surge of 4.16% to trade at $37.31.

But the stock to really watch out for is Olin Corp. (OLN - Snapshot Report) that climbed by 10.39% to $23.17 in spite of the announcement that caustic soda shipments from its plant in McIntosh, Ala., will be halted until further notice. Praxair, Inc. (PX - Analyst Report) too scaled $85.98, up by 4.65%. Dow and Praxair are trading near their 200-Day Moving Average.

Also on the upswing were PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG - Analyst Report), Ashland Inc. (ASH - Snapshot Report) and Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD - Analyst Report), all stocks that had tanked on Thursday. However, the biggest chemical maker, BASF (BASFY - Analyst Report) was not so lucky, as it was down to $46.83 following a Bloomberg news that the company will cut down polystyrene production in Europe by 25% because of a fall in demand. Dow Chemical too had announced a 15% reduction in polystyrene production in Europe in June.

Read the full analyst report on DD

Read the full analyst report on ASH

Read the full analyst report on DOW

Read the full analyst report on OLN

Read the full analyst report on PPG

Read the full analyst report on APD