TOP STORIES

New Big Macs, Dollar Drinks Expected to Help McDonald's Sales -- Earnings Preview

McDonald's Corp. is scheduled to announce its first-quarter earnings before the market opens on Tuesday. Here's what you need to know:

EARNINGS FORECAST: Net income of $1.34 per share is expected, compared with $1.23 a share a year earlier, according to FactSet.

SAME-STORE SALES AND REVENUE FORECAST: McDonald's is expected to post a 1.1% increase in global same-store sales for the quarter, with a 0.7% decrease in the U.S., its largest market. The company is expected to report revenue of $5.5 billion, compared with $5.9 billion a year earlier.

Packers Paid up for Thin Cattle -- Market Talk

15:15 ET - Packers have adequate inventory coming into this week and can call on May contract cattle next week, meaning the market is unlikely to see a repeat of last week's jump in cash prices, says Troy Vetterkind of Vetterkind Cattle Brokerage. Last week live cattle sold at between $130 and $134 per 100 pounds, about $4 to $8 above the previous week with packers forced to pay higher prices to scramble to fill beef orders with leaner-than-usual cattle. "Given we are on a substantial cash rally again with large volumes of numbers trading I think we could see packers try and back the market up a little bit this week," he says. The HedgersEdge packer margin index per cattle was $3.45 Monday. (julie.wernau@wsj.com)

STORIES OF INTEREST

Farmer Case Against Syngenta Heads to Trial -- Market Talk

14:52 ET - The first case among thousands filed against Syngenta (SYNN.EB) by U.S. corn farmers heads to trial in Minnesota, attempting to hold the Swiss crop-seed company liable for declining corn prices in late 2013 after Chinese authorities began rejecting grain shipments found to contain a genetically engineered corn variety developed by Syngenta. Farmers, including Daniel Mensik, who filed the Minnesota complaint, say Syngenta should compensate them for lower corn prices since the company marketed the biotech corn before China had approved it; Syngenta says it was up front about the corn's regulatory status in China and that the claims have no merit. Syngenta, which expects to complete its $43B sale to China National Chemical in May, reported earlier Monday that 1Q sales fell 1% to $3.7B. (jacob.bunge@wsj.com; @jacobbunge)

FUTURES MARKETS

Hogs Rise Ahead of Cold Storage Report, Cattle Slump

Lean hog futures found their footing Monday ahead of a monthly report of commodity supplies in cold storage warehouses across the country.

The report is scheduled to be released at 3 p.m. ET by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and has become an increasingly important indicator of demand for pork products as record high production is matched with strong pricing for pork products.

CME lean hogs for May rose 2.2% to end at 64.4 cents a pound.

CASH MARKETS

 
Zumbrota, Minn Hog $1.00 Lower At $34.00 - Apr 24 
 
Barrow and gilt prices at the Zumbrota, Minn., livestock market today are 
$1.00 lower at $34.00 per hundredweight. 
 
Sow prices are $2.00 higher. Sows weighing under 450 pounds are 
$35.00-$37.00, 400-450 pounds are at $35.00-$37.00, 450-500 pounds are 
$35.00-$37.00 and those over 500 pounds are $39.00-$41.00. 
 
The day's total run is estimated at 100 head. 
 
Prices are provided by the Central Livestock Association. 
 
Estimated U.S. Pork Packer Margin Index - Apr 24 
 
 
All figures are on a per-head basis. 
 
Date     Standard Margin       Estimated margin 
         Operating Index         at vertically - 
                             integrated operations 
                                      * 
Apr 24       +$38.03             +$ 29.10 
Apr 21       +$41.19             +$ 31.34 
Apr 20       +$38.10             +$ 29.28 
 
* 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   99.1 
      (Percent of Year-Ago)     Select   96.0 
 
USDA Boxed Beef, Pork Reports 

Wholesale choice-grade beef prices Monday rose $1.51 per hundred pounds, to $218.67, according to the USDA. Select-grade prices rose 40 cents per hundred pounds, to $204.29. The total load count was 114. Wholesale pork prices fell $1.04, to $73.94 a hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 24, 2017 17:31 ET (21:31 GMT)

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