Global chemicals diverge as oil keeps costs elevated while production margins remain under pressure
🛢 Brent around $102/bbl continues to keep feedstock costs elevated, particularly for naphtha and oil-dependent crackers. However, finished-product prices have not risen fast enough to fully offset higher input costs, leaving margins across several chains under pressure.
🇪🇺 Europe is entering October with a clearer upward pricing trend. Olefin contracts are expected to rise by around EUR 60–80/ton, while styrene could increase by roughly EUR 100–150/ton. Polyolefins, polystyrene and PET had already moved higher beforehand. Even so, ethylene, PE and PP spreads remain below year-ago levels, suggesting much of the increase still reflects feedstock cost pass-through rather than stronger pricing power.
🇨🇳 China has effectively frozen price indications during Golden Week, but unchanged quotations do not mean supply and demand are balanced. PP and PE inventories at Sinopec and CNPC remain above seasonal averages, while suppliers avoided aggressive price cuts ahead of the holiday.
📉 Pressure may become more visible after China reopens on October 8. If inventories fail to decline sufficiently in the first week and new PE–PP capacity starts as scheduled in the second half of the month, polyolefin prices could face stronger downside pressure by the third week after the holiday.
🌍 The US is following a different path from Europe, with most major-volume resins expected to trade flat to lower in October. The broader picture is therefore not a synchronized global chemical upcycle, but a widening divergence between feedstock costs, demand conditions and the ability of producers to defend margins across regions.
U.S. grains weaken on inventories and demand, while sugar breaks to an 18-month high
🌽 Corn led the weekly decline after U.S. stocks as of September 1 reached 2.095 billion bushels, above all market estimates and roughly 173 million bushels higher than USDA’s previous projection. December corn lost about 30.5 cents over the week, while drier Midwest weather remained favorable for harvesting and kept near-term supply pressure elevated.
🫘 Soybeans sent a more mixed signal, with stocks at just 315 million bushels, below both market expectations and the year-earlier level. However, soybeans were excluded from the agricultural products covered by the U.S.–China tariff reduction agreement, leaving demand concerns strong enough to outweigh the relatively tighter balance sheet.
🌾 Wheat held up better as inventories remained well below year-ago levels and production came in close to expectations. This helped Chicago wheat avoid the sharper adjustment seen in corn, although a stronger USD and favorable harvest conditions continued to limit upside.
🍬 Sugar moved in the opposite direction, with ICE raw sugar rising toward 19 cents/lb, its highest level in roughly 18 months. Prices were supported by weaker Brazilian output, relatively tight Indian inventories, and the potential for mills to continue favoring ethanol while energy prices remain elevated.
📅 Attention now turns to the October 9 WASDE report. Markets will watch how much of the unexpectedly large corn inventory is incorporated into the 2026/27 balance sheet, while soybeans may still need clearer Chinese buying signals to decouple from broader grain-market pressure.
High yields keep markets divided as AI chips continue to support Nasdaq and Nikkei
📊 Global equities did not move into a broad risk-off phase during the week of September 28–October 2, but market divergence became increasingly clear. The S&P 500 fell 0.27% and the Dow lost 1.26% for the week, while the Nasdaq still gained 0.45%, supported by technology and semiconductor stocks.
📉 U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by just 29,000, sharply reducing expectations for a Fed rate hike in October and helping equities recover late in the week. However, the 10-year Treasury yield still finished near 5.28% after reaching 5.34%, showing that pressure from long-term borrowing costs remains elevated.
🔎 Market breadth was also weaker than the major indices suggested, with only around 35% of stocks in the tracked universe advancing during the week. Technology continued to outperform, while financials and healthcare declined more sharply, reflecting continued concentration in a relatively narrow group of market leaders.
💻 A similar pattern appeared across Asia. The Nikkei gained nearly 3% on strength in chip and semiconductor-equipment stocks, while the broader TOPIX declined. Taiwan remained positive, while the Hang Seng, KOSPI and Nifty weakened under pressure from high U.S. yields and thinner regional liquidity.
🇪🇺 Europe continued to underperform the U.S., with the STOXX 600 falling more than 1% and the CAC 40 losing over 2%. Rising French bond yields and a wider spread over German debt kept fiscal risk and financing costs as stronger headwinds than the positive signals coming from economic activity data.
⚖️ Overall, the week was better characterized by valuation divergence than by a broad market sell-off. AI chips and selected growth stocks continued to support major indices, but elevated yields, weak breadth and pressure in Europe suggest that the rally has yet to broaden meaningfully.
USD rises for a third straight week despite sharply weaker US payrolls
📈 The DXY ended the week around 101.93, up roughly 0.94% despite falling on Friday after the jobs report. September nonfarm payrolls increased by only 29,000, unemployment rose to 4.2%, and the previous two months were revised down by a combined 60,000, significantly reducing expectations for another Fed rate hike in October.
📉 However, weaker labor data was not enough to reverse the dollar’s broader trend. The US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to around 5.34% during the week and, after dropping sharply following NFP, quickly rebounded as oil prices and Middle East risks continued to sustain the inflation premium. Markets therefore shifted from expecting an immediate Fed hike toward a delay, rather than pricing in a new easing cycle.
🇪🇺 EUR/USD fell about 1.2% over the week to around 1.1256. The euro faced simultaneous pressure from higher energy costs, a less hawkish ECB outlook and French fiscal risks, while the France–Germany 10-year yield spread widened above 150 basis points. Higher-than-expected Eurozone inflation also failed to generate a meaningful positive reaction in the euro.
🇯🇵 USD/JPY remained near 158 as the US–Japan yield gap continued to support the dollar. Tokyo inflation accelerated, but markets still see limited chances of a BoJ hike in October, while the 159–160 area is increasingly constrained by intervention warnings from Japanese authorities.
⛽ The broader structure of the week shows that FX remains more sensitive to yields and energy than to a single labor-market release. NFP slowed the dollar’s momentum in the short term, but it was not enough to remove the greenback’s relative advantage over currencies more exposed to the energy shock.
SC02 M5 - pending Long order. Entry contains POC + not affected by any weak zone, the current support zone is approximately 1.06% wide. The uptrend has lasted 16 hours 10 minutes, with a maximum recorded price increase of 6.90%. If price loses this support zone, the trend is highly likely to reverse downward.