Chemical and Agriculture Menu: The Week in Chemicals – 8/14/26

Research evidence excerpt

J P M O R G A N

North America Equity Research

14 August 2026

Chemical and Agriculture Menu

The Week in Chemicals – 8/14/26

The S&P rose 0.4% this week and our Chemical, Agricultural and

Packaging Universe was a step behind. Commodities trumped specialties.

Lyondell was the best performer this week, up 7%; and DOW was 5.9% higher.

Other commodity and intermediate companies recovered: Methanex was up

(+5.4%), Celanese (+4%), Olin (+2.7%), Westlake (+2.7%), HUN (+1.8%),

and EMN (+0.6%). Agriculture had a mixed week with the nitrogen producers

Nutrien (+5.9%) and CF Industries (+3.5%) outperforming phosphate

producer Mosaic (-6.3%) and seed/crop chem company Corteva (-0.2%).

Packaging was led by Silgan (+1.8%) while other packaging names lagged:

Crown (-1.4%), Ball (-2.6%), and Amcor (-3.8%). Paints and coatings

underperformed the S&P with Axalta down (-2.3%), Sherwin (-2.9%), RPM

(-3.0% ) and PPG (-4.7%). Industrial gas was a toss up with Air Products

(+1.8%) besting Linde (-1.5%). At the bottom this week was TiO2 producer

Tronox (-8.4%) and carbon black company Orion (-11.0%).

The week ahead: China exports come out on Thursday, 8/20, and there is lots

of housing data: NAHB index on 8/17; U.S. housing starts/permits on 8/18; and

earnings reports by the large big boxes on 8/18 for HD and 8/19 for LOW. On

the Ag side, the Pro Farmer Crop Tour is taking place August 17-20, providing

insights into corn and soybean production from scout reporting from 2,000+

fields across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio and South

Dakota. IFF investors will get a read on enzyme demand from competitor

Novonesis’ results on 8/20. AVY investors may tune into Walmart’s earnings

call on 8/20 for updates on intelligent label implementation in the food

category.

Economic bits: US existing home sales were (1.7%) lower m/m in July at

4.06m units annualized, and existing home sales grew 0.7% y/y. The average

30-year mortgage rate (ILM3NAVG Index) is at 6.77% in August and

compares to 6.69% in August a year ago. U.S. consumer prices inched 0.1%

higher m/m (up 3.4% y/y) in July with core CPI 0.2% higher m/m (up 2.5%

y/y). Core CPI excludes food and energy prices. U.S.…