US Chemical Stocks Lose $1.9 Billion in a Day, Will War Profits Be Halted?

LyondellBasell Industries N.V. (NYSE: LYB) plunged 9.05% on Thursday, April 8, closing at $73 on the New York Stock Exchange. With trading volume at its usual level, the company’s market capitalization shrank to about $23.5 billion (approximately KRW 32 trillion), wiping out roughly $1.9 billion (KRW 2.6 trillion) in a single day.

The shares had recently rallied on expectations of petrochemical supply disruptions stemming from the conflict in Iran. However, on April 6, Bank of America downgraded LYB from “Neutral” to “Underperform” and cut its price target to $55, warning that the “war premium” was overestimated. That downgrade triggered profit-taking selling. LyondellBasell is set to report first-quarter results on May 1, which will be a key test of whether the supply-shock–driven earnings improvement shows up in the numbers.

Incorporated in the Netherlands and headquartered in Houston, LyondellBasell is one of the world’s largest petrochemical and plastics producers, manufacturing basic chemicals such as ethylene and polyethylene in a cyclical industry. Recently, the company has been reshaping its portfolio by divesting European olefin and polyolefin assets and expanding investments in chemical recycling facilities in Germany and the U.S., moving toward a circular-plastics business model.