TOP STORIES

Tyson Foods to Offer Covid-19 Vaccines for Plant Workers

Tyson Foods Inc. said Monday it will offer free, onsite Covid-19 vaccinations this week to thousands of plant workers in Arkansas, where 20% of the company's U.S. workforce is based, as well as Kansas and North Carolina.

The food company said the vaccines are being provided in conjunction with Matrix Medical and local health departments in each of the three states, where food processing workers are among the priority group now eligible for vaccination.

Trading Chicken Feet Is Going Digital

Ashley Honey spent his career surrounded by glowing computer screens, swinging hundreds of millions of euros or yen around the globe at a keystroke.

Now he's looking to deploy those cutting-edge tools on another asset class: chicken feet.

If Mr. Honey has his way, the multibillion-dollar market for poultry and meat will soon join the electronic revolution that shifted financial markets from crowded pits of traders onto stacks of humming servers. In charge of strategy and partnerships across the Americas at New Zealand-based Nui, which builds electronic trading platforms for trading dairy and meat, he aims to take market share from food-product giants such as Interra by automating the trading of everything from prime rib to pigs ears.

STORIES OF INTEREST

Covid-19-Closed Restaurants Are Reopening. Running Them Is Still a Battle.

A year into the pandemic, restaurants' wish is coming true: State and local governments are allowing them to seat and serve customers indoors again. But that comes with its own challenges.

Every state in the country now permits some level of indoor dining. Even heavily restrictive states including Michigan, Illinois and California are reversing dine-in bans that were imposed late last year to try to curb a surge in coronavirus cases.

Deliveroo's 2020 Loss Shows Food Delivery Isn't a Quick Win -- Market Talk

1347 GMT - Deliveroo remained lossmaking last year despite experiencing a surge in business during the pandemic, which shows that the food-delivery business isn't a quick win and that the industry is about building scale, AJ Bell Investment Director Russ Mould says. The London-based food-delivery group, backed by Amazon, narrowed its underlying loss for 2020 to GBP223.7 million from GBP317.3 million in 2019, as gross transaction value--the total amount of transactions processed on its platform--jumped 64% to GBP4.1 billion. "Deliveroo says it will continue to invest in its business which could impact profitability. It has no choice as rivals are doing the same. At some point down the line, it will have to start delivering that magic profit or investors will lose interest," Mould says. (adria.calatayud@dowjones.com)

FUTURES MARKETS

Livestock Prices Edge Higher -- Market Talk

1527 ET - Hog prices tick up as traders expect China to increase imports to refill reserves depleted by swine flu, after the Chinese government said last week it would work to stabilize production. Meanwhile, cattle slaughter in the US is seen as slowing, following an uptick earlier this year as domestic demand got a boost from the Covid-10 vaccine rollout and fiscal relief. Hog futures for April delivery gain 0.1% with live cattle closing up 0.3%. (paulo.trevisani@wsj.com; @ptrevisani)

CASH MARKETS 


 
Estimated U.S. Pork Packer Margin Index - Mar 8 
 
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 
 
Mar  8       +$  7.22            +$ 67.74 
Mar  5       +$ 16.15            +$ 67.50 
Mar  4       +$  7.37            +$ 65.27 
 
* 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  111.5 
      (Percent of Year-Ago)      Select  111.0 
 
USDA Boxed Beef, Pork Reports

Wholesale choice-grade beef prices Monday fell 25 cents per hundred pounds, to $231.08, according to the USDA. Select-grade prices rose $2.28 per hundred pounds, to $223.13. The total load count was 70. Wholesale pork prices rose 11 cents, to $93.91 a hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-08-21 1716ET