Why the war in Iran put these four chemical stocks on top of the S&P today

They’re not the most glamorous stocks in the market, but chemical-slash-fertilizer companies CF Industries, Mosaic Co. , Dow, Inc., and LyondellBasell are the belles of the ball in Thursday trading, topping the list of S&P 500 performers shortly before 12 p.m. ET.

Natural gas is a crucial input for the chemical and fertilizer industries, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is basically cutting off supply from the region, which European and Asian chemical companies depend on.

That leaves these US giants — with access to abundant stateside gas supplies — able to produce and take advantage of pricing power in the absence of robust global competition.

Here’s how Citi analysts put it today in a note upgrading LyondellBasell and Dow to “buy” from “neutral”:

“While the duration of the conflict remains uncertain, we believe the disruptions and shutdowns across the upstream LNG plants to downstream crackers in Asia and Europe could provide months of supply-driven pricing uplift.”

Good times for them. (And their shareholders.)

Some of these companies like Dow, Mosaic, and CF Industries are also major suppliers of fertilizers, which influence food prices. And that suggests the world economy is experiencing growing inflationary pressures stemming from the less than 2-week-old war, which could eventually become a problem for the market.