LIVESTOCK HIGHLIGHTS: Top Stories of the Day
06 März 2020 - 11:44PM
Dow Jones News
TOP STORIES
Cargill Getting Back to Business in China -- Market Talk
12:01 ET - Cargill says its plants and facilities have all
reopened in China following coronavirus-driven shutdowns and
quarantines over the last few weeks. The Minnesota-based
agricultural company runs crop-processing plants, chicken
slaughterhouses and financial-market operations in China, employing
about 10,000 people, and its last China facilities to be
closed--two animal feed mills in China's Hubei province--have now
reopened, a spokeswoman says. Cargill hasn't had any employees
known to have contracted Covid-19 but does have some in
self-quarantine, she says. (jacob.bunge@wsj.com; @jacobbunge)
US Foods Buying Smart Foodservice From Apollo Funds for
$970M
US Foods Holding Corp. said Friday it is buying Smart
Foodservice Warehouse Stores from funds managed by affiliates of
Apollo Global Management Inc. for $970 million in cash.
US Foods said the acquisition will be immediately accretive to
adjusted earnings in the first year after the deal closes, and it
expects to see $20 million in annual run-rate cost synergies by
2024, primarily through purchasing efficiencies and the expansion
of private-brand products.
STORIES OF INTEREST
McDonald's Cancels Biennial Convention Due to Coronavirus
Epidemic
McDonald's Corp. is canceling its biennial convention for
franchisees due to the coronavirus epidemic.
The Chicago-based burger giant said Friday that it will hold a
virtual meeting in place of the four-day gathering planned for
Orlando, Fla., next month. Executives consulted with health
authorities, company managers and store owners before making the
call, McDonald's said.
Coronavirus Prompts Grocery Stockpiling in France, UK and
Italy
France is beginning to face basic grocery shortages in its
stores as some customers adopt "irrational buying behavior" in a
response to the coronavirus epidemic, analysts at Bryan Garnier
said Friday, as panic-fueled hoarding gains momentum across Western
Europe.
The European investment bank said that in-store shortages in
France are for now unquantified, but that sector expert Olivier
Dauvers suggests a 10% to 20% shortage in Carrefour SA's pasta
items, indicating a growing inclination towards stockpile
shopping.
FUTURES MARKETS
Cattle Extends Losses to End Week -- Market Talk
15:05 ET - Cattle futures on the CME continued to fall off a
cliff this week -- with the contract falling 2.7% to $1.0575 per
pound on Friday. That makes it 12.4% that cattle has fallen since
Feb. 20 -- down 10 out of the last 12 trading sessions. Lean hogs,
meanwhile, finished the day slightly higher, one of the only
agricultural futures contracts to do so. Hog futures finished up
0.8% to 65.925 cents per pound -- with frozen pork inventories
suggesting that even with increased Chinese export buying, US
producers need an even bigger appetite to eat up the amount of
production coming out of the US. "Unless the US sees additional
importers show up for our pork, we could see inventory climb to a
burdensome quantity," says Karl Setzer of AgriVisor.
(kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
CASH MARKETS
Estimated U.S. Pork Packer Margin Index - Mar 6
All figures are on a per-head basis.
Date Standard Margin Estimated margin
Operating Index at vertically -
integrated operations
Mar 6 +$ 26.32 +$ 8.74
Mar 5 +$ 25.61 +$ 8.82
Mar 4 +$ 23.82 +$ 6.33
* Based on Iowa State University's latest estimated cost of production.
A positive number indicates a processing margin above the cost of production of the animals.
Beef-O-Meter
This report compares the USDA's latest beef carcass composite
values as a percentage of their respective year-ago prices.
Beef
For Today Choice 91.8
(Percent of Year-Ago) Select 92.7
USDA Boxed Beef, Pork Reports
Wholesale choice-grade beef prices Friday rose 22 cents per
hundred pounds, to $207.47, according to the USDA. Select-grade
prices rose $1.51 per hundred pounds, to $202.57. The total load
count was 103. Wholesale pork prices fell 4 cents, to $65.80 a
hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 06, 2020 17:29 ET (22:29 GMT)
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