Over the past week, global markets reacted sharply to the terrible news that a British lawmaker was murdered for her view that the U.K. should remain in the European Union. It’s believed this will push undecided voters to choose to remain. #-ad_banner-#As fears of a Brexit wreaking havoc on the markets subsided, oversold stocks, European currencies and even domestic interest rates rallied quickly. But this week, when it seemed even more traders jumped on board with the rally, basic materials stocks appeared to fail. While steel, paper and chemicals stocks… Read More
Over the past week, global markets reacted sharply to the terrible news that a British lawmaker was murdered for her view that the U.K. should remain in the European Union. It’s believed this will push undecided voters to choose to remain. #-ad_banner-#As fears of a Brexit wreaking havoc on the markets subsided, oversold stocks, European currencies and even domestic interest rates rallied quickly. But this week, when it seemed even more traders jumped on board with the rally, basic materials stocks appeared to fail. While steel, paper and chemicals stocks did gain, they closed near their lows of the day Monday. And those that held on better fell on Tuesday as the broader market gained. This tells us something is amiss in the group — no matter what happens with the Brexit vote. After all, basic materials are on the bottom of the economic food chain, as they supply the inputs to many other industries. One stock that fared particularly poorly was chemicals maker Olin Corp. (NYSE: OLN). The company manufactures products such as caustic soda, bleach, vinyl and sporting ammunition. On the chart, we can see Monday’s bearish outside-day… Read More