Dow Chemical (DOW) CEO Andrew Liveris told CNBC’s Becky Quick this afternoon in an interview “From a trend point of view, we haven’t seen anything that reflects a recessionary environment in the United States,”.
This is an important proclamation as Liveris’s Dow is invloved in virtually every industry in the US and his company is acutely sensitive to conditions here.
He continued, “”We’ve seen a slowdown that suggests there’s a shallow drop, or soft landing … in the back half of this year, we think there is a chance this slowdown will start reversing as the housing crisis abates.”
Regarding US demand decreases for Dow’s products he said “It’s no more acute now than it was a few months ago. Therefore, the first half (of 2008) I think will be a continuation of this, which suggests that the overall year will be a slower year than last year — there’s no question about that,”
Offsetting the US slowdown will be “A global economy growing at 2.8 to 3 percent is probably the adjustment we are making to annual plans versus a global economy of higher than 3 percent, maybe 3.2 or 3.3,” said Liveris.
As he left he reminded Quick to ask him about Dow current strategy after they release results next week. Hmmmm..
Disclosure (“none” means no position): Long DOW
