shares of dow inc dow gained 02 in premarket trading thursday after the materials science company reported fourthquarter profit and sales that rose above expectations and said it expects supply chain pressures to ease through the year net income rose to 174 billion or 232 a share from 124 billion or 165 a share in the yearago period excluding nonrecurring items adjusted earnings per share was 215 above the factset consensus of 203 sales grew 342 to 1436 billion outpacing the 289 rise in cost of sales to 1178 billion local price increased 39 from a year ago among dows business segments packaging and specialty plastics sales jumped 402 to 719 billion industrial intermediates and infrastructure sales increased 299 to 455 billion and performance materials and coatings sales grew 261 to 256 billion underlying demand strength and continued operating discipline enabled us to overcome supply and logistics constraints as well as higher raw material and energy costs said chief executive jim fitterling the stock has gained 22 over the past three months through wednesday while the dow jones industrial average djia has lost 37