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), 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), 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) 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) 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), Ashland Inc. (ASH) and Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD), all stocks that had tanked on Thursday. However, the biggest chemical maker, BASF (BASFY) 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.

“DD” Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
“ASH” Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
“DOW” Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
“OLN” Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
“PPG” Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
“APD” Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?
Zacks Investment Research

Last 5 posts by Zacks Market Commentaries

• IRF & Vishay Reach an Agreement - Analyst Blog - July 2nd, 2009
• Hitachi Expanding Hybrid Cap - Analyst Blog - July 2nd, 2009
• Flagstone Outbids for IPC - Analyst Blog - July 2nd, 2009
• Hartford Boosted by TARP - Analyst Blog - July 2nd, 2009
• KMP's Technological Breakthrough - Analyst Blog - July 2nd, 2009