Chemours’ stock rebounds

Chemours’s stock rose 16% on July 8 following an Ohio jury’s decision to award punitive damages of $500,000, lower than investors expected, in a testicular cancer case. Two days earlier, the firm’s stock had plummeted 22% when the jury awarded $5.1 million in compensatory damages to the cancer victim, who claimed drinking water contaminated with perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) from Chemours’s Parkersburg, W.Va., plant caused his illness. DuPont, which spun off Chemours a year ago, is named as the defendant in the cancer case and in 3,500 other cases claiming injury because of the contaminated water. The spin-off agreement called for Chemours to indemnify DuPont for legal costs. But in statements following the trial, Chemours pointed out that DuPont is directly liable for judgments and that Chemours may not have to pay in some unspecified instances. In a note to clients, Jefferies stock analyst Laurence Alexander says he expects Chemours will negotiate a cost-share arrangement with DuPont.