TOP STORIES

Meatpacker JBS Removed At-Risk Workers from Plant Amid Covid-19 Surge

Meatpacking company JBS USA Holdings Inc. said it has removed hundreds of at-risk workers from a Colorado beef plant in response to rising Covid-19 infections, as the U.S. meat industry seeks to defend itself against the pandemic's current surge.

JBS's move comes as the largest U.S. beef processor faces a fresh Covid-19 outbreak in Greeley, Colo., where the company maintains a beef plant that employs about 3,500 people, making it one of the country's largest.

SEC Settles with Cheesecake Factory Over Covid-19 Effect Claims

The Securities and Exchange Commission said it had settled charges against Cheesecake Factory Inc. for misleading investors about how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the restaurant chain.

The SEC said Friday that the company in the spring filed materially false and misleading disclosures in saying that locations were "operating sustainably." Meanwhile, the company was losing about $6 million in cash weekly and estimated it had only about four months' worth of cash left, according to the agency.

STORIES OF INTEREST

McDonald's Passes on Fees to Franchisees -- Market Talk

0706 ET - McDonald's is asking US franchisees to cover more of the cost of the chain's Happy Meals as part of changes under a wider spending plan, according to a company message. The chain plans to end a long-standing $300 monthly rebate per restaurant for the toys featured in the kids' boxes on Jan. 1. The chain is also asking operators to contribute next year to the company's Archways to Opportunity, a college-funding program begun in 2015. The company says that the changes will help it put "resources where they will have the biggest impact and drive growth," it says in the message viewed by the Wall Street Journal. (heather.haddon@wsj.com; @heatherhaddon)

FUTURES MARKETS

Livestock Pares Losses as Cutouts Rise -- Market Talk

15:27 ET - Livestock futures finished lower, but not as far lower as they opened the day. Live cattle futures fell 0.2% to $1.124 per pound, while lean hog futures finished down 0.5% to 66.575 cents per pound. Possibly providing support for futures is the uptick in cutout prices -- with pork carcass cutouts up $3.49 per hundredweight to $79.94 per cwt, according to the USDA. Hams also shot up today, rising $12.48 per cwt to $91.69 per cwt. Meanwhile, select beef cutouts were also higher as of this morning. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

CASH MARKETS

 
Estimated U.S. Pork Packer Margin Index - Dec 4 
 
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 
 
Dec  4       +$ 38.38            +$ 37.78 
Dec  3       +$ 35.75            +$ 34.53 
Dec  2       +$ 42.74            +$ 42.91 
 
* 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  104.2 
      (Percent of Year-Ago)      Select  104.5 
 
USDA Boxed Beef, Pork Reports

Wholesale choice-grade beef prices Friday fell $4.17 per hundred pounds, to $235.02, according to the USDA. Select-grade prices fell $2.42 per hundred pounds, to $217.51. The total load count was 132. Wholesale pork prices rose $1.51, to $76.64 a hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 04, 2020 17:43 ET (22:43 GMT)

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