At midday, China's most-active futures contracts were mostly lower. Lithium
carbonate led declines, down over 6%; container freight to Europe fell more than
4%; PVC slipped about 3%; apples, low-sulfur fuel oil (LU) and live hogs dropped
over 2%; eggs and polysilicon fell about 2%. Gains were led by benzene,
polyester staple fiber, PET bottle chips, p-xylene, methanol, asphalt, styrene
and industrial silicon, each up more than 1%.