Chemicals steadied without repairing: seven of nine names rose over seven days, none by more than 3%, but eight of nine still sit below their 200-day averages, the same count as October 2. Ecolab ($ECL) is the only name above that line and the only strong-up short trend, though its year lags the market. PPG ($PPG) is now the only name in the RSI 25–40 band, where four sat a week earlier. DuPont ($DD, +33.05% over one year) keeps the best long-horizon record from 5.7% under its 200-day, and Sherwin-Williams ($SHW) is the broken one.

Data as of the 2026-10-09 close for all nine tickers, including the materials fund ($XLB), from the desk's chemicals summary (Polygon bars). Comparison: the October 2, 2026 close.

The tape change is breadth turning up on small moves. Seven-day changes as of the October 9 close: Ecolab +2.97%, LyondellBasell +2.48%, Dow +1.61%, Air Products +1.33%, $XLB +1.17%, Linde +0.89%, DuPont +0.02%, Sherwin-Williams -0.05% and PPG -1.13%. Friday leaned the other way for two names: DuPont fell 1.87% and PPG 1.42%, while Air Products rose 1.03%. Over thirty days three names are positive (Linde +3.66%, Ecolab +3.53%, DuPont +1.63%) and six negative, led by LyondellBasell's -6.94% and Air Products' -4.74%.

No name is in an intact long uptrend. Ecolab is above its 200-day (+2.8%) with a strong-up short tag and golden cross, but it is +3.41% over one year with alpha of -12.59, a short-term turn in a stock that has trailed the market. DuPont has the strongest record (+33.05% over one year, +20.93% over two, alpha +17.04) yet sits 5.7% under its 200-day with a strong-down short tag, so its long trend is under test. Dow (+28.71% over one year, alpha +12.71) and LyondellBasell (+25.93%, alpha +9.92) show positive years, but their two-year changes are -46.8% and -36.32% and they sit 11.6% and 3.9% under their 200-days: one-year rebounds inside two-year losses, now below the 200-day and labeled as basing. Sherwin-Williams is the broken one: -4.16% over one year, -15.73% over two, alpha -20.16. Linde (+5.58%, alpha -10.42), Air Products (+7.06%, alpha -8.94) and PPG (+4.38%, alpha -11.63) trail the market; $XLB is +11.48% on the year with alpha -4.52 and 2.6% under its line.

No cause is on file for the week's firming or for Friday's DuPont and PPG declines. Dow's news (pulled October 8) and Air Products' (October 7) hold earnings-call and quote pages from earlier quarters, nothing on this week. The DuPont (September 11), Ecolab (September 25), Linde (July 31), Sherwin-Williams (July 25) and LyondellBasell (June 21) pulls predate the week, and the PPG and $XLB pulls failed, so news was not pulled for these moves. The stock-events record holds only upcoming reports. Article and social captures for October 3–9 name none of these companies; the only filings are director Form 4s for Linde (October 5) and Sherwin-Williams (October 6, coded as grants).

• Seven-day breadth: seven of nine positive, up from two of nine.
• Thirty-day breadth: three of nine positive (Linde, Ecolab, DuPont), up from none.
• Names under the 200-day: eight of nine, unchanged. Ecolab moved from sitting on the line to 2.8% above it, with a strong-up short tag.
• The 25–40 RSI band emptied and refilled with one name: $XLB (34.4 to 43.4), Air Products (36.9 to 44.1), LyondellBasell (39.6 to 47.6) and Dow (39.9 to 46.8) all left it; PPG entered (40.7 to 38.9).
• RSI above 50: Linde and Ecolab (both 56.8), where Linde stood alone.
• Linde's short trend tag turned from strong-down to weak-up; it is 0.8% under its 200-day.
• Dow's 200-day gap narrowed from -12.6% to -11.6%; still the deepest in the group.

RSI measures recent buying versus selling pressure on a 0–100 scale; under 30 is oversold and 25–40 is the watch band used below. The short trend tag reads only the last few weeks. The longer-horizon checks are the gap to the 200-day average, the one- and two-year changes, and one-year alpha (return versus the market); for Dow and LyondellBasell the two-year change matters because their positive years sit inside deep two-year losses. None of these names carries a desk thesis rating, so everything here is raw price evidence, not a setup. Table values show each row's data date; prose figures are as of the October 9 close.

Capitulation, RSI under 25: None.

Oversold, RSI 25–40: PPG (38.9) as of October 9. It sits 7.2% under its 200-day with a strong-down tag and alpha of -11.63, so the reading reflects damaged structure, not a dip in a healthy trend.

Neutral to strong, RSI 40+: Sherwin-Williams (43.4), $XLB (43.4), Air Products (44.1), DuPont (45.9), Dow (46.8), LyondellBasell (47.6), Linde (56.8), Ecolab (56.8). Nothing is overbought.

• Dow reports first, October 22 before the open (provider estimate), followed by Sherwin-Williams and Ecolab on October 27 before the open, PPG October 27 after the close, Linde October 29, LyondellBasell October 30, DuPont November 3 and Air Products November 5.
• Whether Ecolab holds its 200-day on the next pullback, and whether Linde, DuPont or $XLB joins it above the line.
• PPG's support shelf near $102.57 (October 9 summary): a break would extend the slide; a hold with the RSI turning up would be the first stabilization.
• Fresh news for PPG and $XLB, whose last pulls failed, and for the names whose receipts predate the week.

• Tape: the desk's chemicals summary as of the 2026-10-09 close (chemicals).
• Comparison: the October 2, 2026 chemicals scan (2026-10-02-chemicals).
• News receipts: stocks{DOW,LYB,SHW,APD,LIN,ECL,PPG,DD,XLB}/news/latest.json` (fetched dates above; PPG and XLB failed and stale).
• Report schedule: stock-events rows in research/stock-events/ for DOW (2026-10-22), SHW, ECL, PPG (2026-10-27), LIN (2026-10-29), LYB (2026-10-30), DD (2026-11-03), APD (2026-11-05); all provider estimates.
• Filings: director Form 4s 2026-10-05-lin-4-* and 2026-10-06-shw-4-*.
• Captures for October 3–9 searched for all nine company names; no article or social item names them.