TOP STORIES

 

Greencore to Cease Northampton Facility Production Amid Covid-19 Outbreak

Greencore Group PLC said Friday that it will temporarily halt production at its Northampton, England facility due to a Covid-19 outbreak in the area and at the site.

The Irish sandwich-maker said it has moved a proportion of the production from Northampton to other sites within the Greencore network.

 

Cranswick Earnings Won't Be Hit by Ballymena Site Closure Amid Virus Outbreak -- Market Talk

0646 GMT - Cranswick's closure of its Ballymena site in Northern Ireland due to a community coronavirus outbreak won't affect the bigger picture, Shore Capital says. "Whilst an inconvenience outside the Group's direct control, we believe that Cranswick's two major pig processing units in England can comfortably meet customer requirements whilst Ballymena is down," the brokerage says. The food producer is unlikely to suffer from any discernible hit on earnings coming from the incident, Shore concludes. (matteo.castia@dowjones.com)

 

STORIES OF INTEREST

 

Naspers Sees More Deals, Possibly Including Brazil's iFood -- Market Talk

12:48 ET - Naspers may have lost out on UK-based food-delivery company Just Eat, but the South African tech company sees plenty of opportunities in the food space. "The long-term potential in food delivery is very meaningful, and we're looking carefully at opportunities there," Chief Executive Bob van Dijk says at the company's annual shareholder meeting. Naspers is already the controlling shareholder of Brazil's iFood. Asked if Naspers would consider buying Just Eat Takeaway.com's stake in iFood, van Dijk says, "If there's an opportunity to buy remaining shares in that business at the right price that will generate a return for us, we'll always consider it." (maria.armental@wsj.com; @mjarmental)

 

Higher Prices Boost Deere's Profit Gain on Ag Equipment -- Market Talk

0829 ET - Deere easily tops quarterly profit expectations by logging a 54% increase in operating profit from its farm equipment business. Deere managed to wring $262M of price increases from farm equipment, despite a 5% decrease in sales. Deere now expects overall net income for the fiscal year ending in October to come in at about $2.25B vs. the prior guidance of $1.6B to $2B. Shares up 2.8% at $196.45 in pre-market trading. (robert.tita@wsj.com)

 

FUTURES MARKETS

 

Livestock Futures Finish Lower -- Market Talk

16:36 ET - After spending much of the day trading higher, livestock futures reverse course, with live-cattle futures turning down 1.1% to $1.0855 a pound and lean-hog futures dropping 1.7% to 54.25c. "Hogs started the day slightly higher but we gave up some ground by the time we closed," Craig VanDyke of Top Third Ag Marketing says. "While we did have a slightly lower close the action didn't seem overwhelmingly bearish for the day. Today looked more like some spreads unwinding into the weekend after strong bull spreading during the middle of the week." (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

 

CASH MARKETS

 
Estimated U.S. Pork Packer Margin Index - Aug 21 
 
Source: USDA, based on Wall Street Journal calculations 
All figures are on a per-head basis. 
 
Date     Standard Margin       Estimated margin 
         Operating Index         at vertically - 
                             integrated operations 
 
Aug 21       +$ 61.53            +$ 24.13 
Aug 20       +$ 69.70            +$ 29.57 
Aug 19       +$ 66.22            +$ 25.92 
 
* 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   94.4 
      (Percent of Year-Ago)      Select   96.8 
 
USDA Boxed Beef, Pork Reports 

Wholesale choice-grade beef prices Friday rose 56 cents per hundred pounds, to $225.94, according to the USDA. Select-grade prices rose $2.68 per hundred pounds, to $208.99. The total load count was 75. Wholesale pork prices fell $2.53, to $72.96 a hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 21, 2020 17:15 ET (21:15 GMT)

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