Chemicals

Highlights Portfolio Strategy Media stocks are poised to challenge previous relative performance highs as sales growth reaccelerates. Stay overweight. The materials sector has lagged behind the commodity price rally, a sign of underlying weakness rather than latent strength. Chemicals…

We went overweight the S&P agricultural chemicals index in early May, a contrarian bet to take advantage of extreme bearishness, undervaluation and the potential for a rise in underlying commodity prices. Since then, a rise in industry M&A activity has borne out our thesis of cheap…

Equities are celebrating domestic economic disappointment rather than re-pricing the risk of ongoing profit struggles. This reinforces that liquidity and share price momentum are still the dominant market forces.

Overweight Our early-May upgrade of the S&P agricultural chemical index proved timely, as Bayer launched a bid for Monsanto, sending the index up sharply. It is tempting to book gains, but if underlying profit drivers continue to move in a bullish direction, share prices should have further…

The bright side to higher food prices is that the S&P agricultural chemical index should finally be finished a brutal bear market. This group has been savaged by the collapse in agricultural commodity prices, worries about the return of Argentine supply and China's future import growth. The…

U.S. dollar softness has failed to lift equities of late, a tentative warning that correlations are changing as the U.S. economy cools.