Dow, DuPont Sign Soybean Development Deal

NEW YORK (AP) — Dow Chemical Co.'s Dow AgroSciences unit is teaming with DuPont to develop herbicide-tolerant soybeans.

Under the agreement, Dow AgroSciences is non-exclusively licensing its herbicide-tolerant trait technology for soybeans to DuPont's Pioneer Hi-Bred unit. In addition, Pioneer is licensing non-exclusively its proprietary Optimum GAT trait for soybeans to Dow.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

Shares of Dow Chemical rose $1.73, or 6.5 percent, to $28.44 in afternoon trading, earlier reaching a 52-week high of $28.88. Also Thursday the company said it plans to sell more assets in 2010 as it continues to work toward paying off debt from its $16.5 billion acquisition of Rohm and Haas in April, and forecast strong earnings growth by 2012.

Shares of DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., fell 16 cents to $33.95.