TOP STORIES
Cultivated Meat, Fermentation-Based Protein Likely Long-Term Winners in Alt-Protein Industry -- Market Talk
0811 GMT - Alternative-protein companies focused on cell-culture cultivation and fermentation-based products will likely become industry winners in the long run, Jefferies says. Cultivated meat refers to products grown from cell cultures, which can achieve animal-meat taste without excessive chemical additives, a key advantage over plant-based proteins, the bank says. Fermentation-based meat is produced through genetic modification with microorganisms. From a cost and production-speed standpoint, this technology could be a game changer for the food industry, Jefferies says. These two product types may lag behind plant proteins in market penetration and consumer awareness at the moment, but will likely stand out in the long term for their technological superiority, Jefferies says. (yifan.wang@wsj.com)
STORIES OF INTEREST
Soybeans Rise in Reaction to Higher Palm Oil Futures
Soybeans for November delivery rose 2.2% to $10.44 a bushel, on the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday, in response to an uptick to Malaysian palm oil futures overnight.
Corn for December delivery rose 1.5% to $3.85 a bushel.
Wheat for December delivery fell 1.5% to $5.92 3/4 a bushel.
Grain Stocks a Focus in Friday's Wasde Report -- Market Talk
14:24 ET - One main focus for Friday's Wasde report by the USDA is by how much the agency will mark down its expectations for grain inventories in the 2020/21 marketing year. Because the USDA made a sizable cut to its projections for 2019/20 grain inventories, traders believe that 2020/21 inventories will drop as well. "It's almost a given that US corn/bean stocks are going to come down on Friday," Doug Bergman of RCM Alternatives says. "The tricky part is figuring out what are bullish/bearish numbers considering the recent price gains that we've seen." A decline of 100M soybean bushels and 400M corn bushels is needed to keep current momentum in grains futures going, Bergman says. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
Hurricane Expected to Complicate Grain Exports -- Market Talk
13:08 ET - Hurricane Delta, which is progressing through the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to make landfall in Louisiana by Sunday, could affect grain exports leaving from New Orleans. "Exporters are quickly loading as many ships as possible, but will abandon those operations to get ships back out to the Gulf and out of harm's way late week," Arlan Suderman of StoneX says. "Barges moving south will be held up river until the hurricane passes. Damage will then be assessed in the New Orleans area, before operations resume." Grain-export inspections reported by the USDA yesterday were strong, led by soybean inspections, which totaled 1.67M metric tons this week. Meanwhile, wheat inspections totaled 643,671 tons and corn inspections totaled 863,995 tons. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
FUTURES MARKETS
Hog Futures Finish 2% Higher -- Market Talk
15:24 ET - Lean hog futures trading on the CME finished up 2% to 63.875 cents per pound. Driving futures higher is a less-than-expected slaughter figure projected for this week, says Dennis Smith of Archer Financials. "The weekly kill is projected to come in at 2.685 million pigs, up about 3% from last week but unchanged from last year," says Smith. "The hog & pig [report] suggested the kill for this week should run from up 6% to up 10% from last year." Meanwhile, the live cattle contract closed trading Tuesday up 0.2% to $1.1195 per pound. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)
CASH MARKETS
Estimated U.S. Pork Packer Margin Index - Oct 6
This report reflects U.S. pork packer processing margins. The margin indices
are calculated using current cash hog or carcass values and wholesale pork
cutout values and may not reflect actual margins at the plants. These
estimates reflect the general health of the industry and are not meant to
be indicative of any particular company or plant.
Source: USDA, based on Wall Street Journal calculations
All figures are on a per-head basis.
Date Standard Margin Estimated margin
Operating Index at vertically -
integrated operations
Oct 6 +$ 53.94 +$ 69.42
Oct 5 +$ 54.52 +$ 74.41
Oct 2 +$ 55.13 +$ 69.30
* 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 102.4
(Percent of Year-Ago) Select 111.3
USDA Boxed Beef, Pork Reports Wholesale choice-grade beef prices Tuesday fell 74 cents per hundred pounds, to $216.24, according to the USDA. Select-grade prices fell $1.17 per hundred pounds, to $206.84. The total load count was 168. Wholesale pork prices fell $2.32, to $91.36 a hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-06-20 1727ET
