TOP STORIES

 
McDonald's Promoting Vaccination -- Market Talk

0703 ET - McDonald's says it is working with the Biden administration to promote Covid-19 vaccination. The burger giant says it will advertise vaccination information on its billboard in Times Square later this month. The company says its hot coffee cups and food delivery stickers in US stores will include the federal government's coronavirus vaccination website beginning in July. (heather.haddon@wsj.com; @heatherhaddon)

STORIES OF INTEREST

 
El Pollo Loco Eliminating Use of Styrofoam

El Pollo Loco said it is eliminating its use of Styrofoam and undergoing a system-wide rollout of Thermo-To-Go packaging. The transition to the Thermo-To-Go containers, which are made from partially recycled materials, will remove 1.9 million cubic feet of Styrofoam from the national waste stream annually, the chicken restaurant chain said. El Pollo Loco's tostadas switched to Thermo-To-Go packaging in late April and the restaurant's chicken will be sold in the new containers system-wide by the end of May.

 
Wheat Climbs Amid Final Preparations for WASDE

Wheat for July delivery rose 1.9% to $7.44 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday. Grain traders took advantage of Monday's selling to get back into long positions ahead of Wednesday's WASDE report from the USDA. Soybeans for July delivery rose 1.8% to $16.18 3/4 a bushel, the highest level since September 2012. Corn for July delivery rose 1.7% to $7.24 1/4 a bushel.

 
US Ethanol Production Forecast to Rise -- Market Talk

12:36 ET - US ethanol production is projected to show a rise in the past week, according to analysts surveyed by Dow Jones. Analysts surveyed forecast the EIA's ethanol production data expected tomorrow will show production for the week ended Friday to total anywhere from 950,000 barrels a day to 976,000 barrels a day, up from 952,000 barrels a day reported last week. If production hits the high end of estimates, it'll be the highest ethanol production has been since mid-December, and well up from 617,000 barrels a day reported at this time last year. Meanwhile, analysts forecast ethanol stockpiles to be anywhere from 20M barrels to 21M barrels, from 20.4M barrels reported last week. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

FUTURES MARKETS

 
Cattle Futures Climb on Rumblings of Reduced Herds -- Market Talk

1510 ET - Live cattle futures trading on the CME closed up 0.4% to $1.188 per pound in response to growing projections that high corn prices around the world may cause cattle producers to reduce the amount of animals they feed. "Several countries in the world have started to cut back on cattle herds due to high corn values, including the United States," says Karl Setzer of AgriVisor. "Cow/calf operations have seen the greatest decline, with cow slaughter up 7% from last year, putting it at the highest volume since 2011. This action will elevate the US beef supply in the short-term, but likely cause it to tighten in the future." Meanwhile, lean hog futures closed down 0.8% to $1.11175 per pound. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

CASH MARKETS

 
Estimated U.S. Pork Packer Margin Index - May 11 
 
 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 
 
May 11       -$ 28.60            +$ 98.39 
May 10       -$ 26.12            +$ 98.16 
May  7       -$ 24.70            +$ 98.82 
 
* 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   67.8 
      (Percent of Year-Ago)      Select   66.0 
 
USDA Boxed Beef, Pork Reports

Wholesale choice-grade beef prices Tuesday rose $3.26 per hundred pounds, to $312.37, according to the USDA. Select-grade prices rose $2.58 per hundred pounds, to $296.34. The total load count was 106. Wholesale pork prices rose 11 cents, to $111.50 a hundred pounds, based on Omaha, Neb., price quotes.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 11, 2021 18:05 ET (22:05 GMT)

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