The S&P Chemicals Index, a measure of equity prices for chemical companies, fell 4.0% in December and ended 2015 down 6.3% compared to the beginning of the year, according to the first Weekly Chemistry and Economic Report of 2016, from the American Chemistry Council (ACC; Washington, D.C.; www.americanchemistry.com).
Meanwhile, the broader S&P 500 Index fell 1.8% in December and was 0.7% lower than at the beginning of 2015. “Both indices provided the worst performance since 2008,” the ACC report says.
The first ACC weekly report for 2016 also included the final tally for 2015 in the organization’s count of chemical industry products related to the harvesting of natural gas from shale deposits in the U.S. At the end of 2015, the list of chemical products totaled 262, with a cumulative capital investment of $158 billion in the U.S. Of the total, 64% came from foreign direct investment, the ACC says.