Chemicals - Specialty

The industrial gas names carried the quarter. Average sentiment across the group rose from 6.44 to 6.89, and the two largest moves both came from gases: Linde (LIN) climbed from 6 to 9 and Air Products (APD) from 7 to 9. Linde reported sales of $8.8 billion up 8% year-over-year with EPS of $4.33, 10% over prior year or 5% excluding the effects of currency translation, and raised full-year guidance to a new range of $17.60 to $17.90, or 7% to 9% growth. Air Products posted earnings per share of $3.20, an increase of 19% compared to the prior year quarter, on sales up 9%, with operating margin expanding over 200 basis points to 23.7%, and raised fiscal full year guidance to $13 to $13.25, or 8% to 10% growth from the prior year. Both cited the same driver. Linde's electronics end market grew 10% on advanced chip investments for AI, with the sale of gas backlog ending the quarter at $7.1 billion. Air Products announced its largest-ever electronics investment with Samsung in South Korea and expects $1.5 billion to $2 billion added to backlog in the next 6 months.