This has been a favorite chart of mine for a while. $DOW does it every earnings call and it is incredibly useful as it us a global picture of demand in every industrial segment. Simply put, $DOW makes the stuff that people use to make stuff. There are very few products or processes in the world that are not touched in some way by a product Dow produces or an area it does business in. In that respect, by watching their demand, we can gauge global economic demand in general.

Here is is for Q2:

Globally, a drag on economies in Q2 was the Japan situation and its after effects. We can see that as of July, demand in Japan has seen some serious acceleration across almost all sectors. This will give the global GDP a “rebound” in Q3. Given that Dow was able to pass along 9% price increases to match its 19% volume increases in Q2 ad we see global demand accelerating in July (Q3), one must be inclined to think global GDP in Q3 increases. This also bodes very well for $DOW’s Q3 results.

Questions on $DOW and $ACAS are also answered