TOP STORIES

ADM Being Choosy on Deals, CEO Says -- Market Talk

1024 ET - Archer Daniels Midland has been relatively quiet on the deal front lately, and CEO Juan Luciano says it's because the agricultural company's being selective as valuations for crop processing and food ingredient companies remain very high. "It needs to be a perfect fit into our portfolio, and the perfect combination of things," Luciano says. ADM this week announced a deal for European soy ingredient developer Sojaprotein, which Luciano says ticks those boxes as far as fast-growing demand for plant-based proteins, geographic expansion, and new production capacity. Terms of that deal weren't disclosed. (jacob.bunge@wsj.com; @jacobbunge)

STORIES OF INTEREST

McDonald's Appoints Its First Global Chief Customer Officer

McDonald's Corp. named company veteran Manu Steijaert as its first global chief customer officer, who will lead a new customer-experience team.

The team will combine operations in data analytics, digital customer engagement, marketing, restaurant development and restaurant solutions, a segment that includes areas such as drive-through services and how food is cooked, McDonald's said.

US Crop Ratings Expected to Trend Lower -- Market Talk

1251 ET - Crop ratings, which trended down in Monday's crop progress report from the USDA, are expected to turn down even further in next week's report. "The weather this week will be hot and dry for much of the Midwest so traders will be expecting another decline in ratings next Monday if the weather patterns perform as currently forecast," says Craig Turner of Daniels Trading. In the Northern Plains, isolated showers are expected to continue throughout the week--albeit no significant showers are expected, according to DTN. Grains futures are mixed Tuesday, with corn futures unchanged, soybeans up 0.2%, and wheat inching ahead 0.1%. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

US Ethanol Inventories Pile Up -- Market Talk

1228 ET - Inventories of ethanol in the US are expected to again climb this week, according to analysts surveyed by WSJ this week. They predict ethanol inventories up to as much as 23.5M barrels--the highest stocks have been since mid-February. This growth comes as Archer Daniels Midland sees vehicle miles traveled this summer as back to pre-pandemic levels, and in some places surpassing that level. Corn futures are down 0.2% Tuesday, this after trading up 1.3% pre-market. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

ADM Aims to Expand Carbon-Capture Efforts -- Market Talk

0958 ET - Archer Daniels Midland says a four-year carbon capture effort situated around its Decatur, Ill. crop-processing facilities is paying off, and can be applied to more of its operations in the future. Since 2017, ADM says that about 20,000 feet of wells have sequestered more than 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide underground, and CEO Juan Luciano says that expanding such carbon capture operations will let ADM market more of its products as "low carbon intensity," while lowering the carbon scores of its plants. "This is going to be a growing part of our operations, for sure," Luciano says. (jacob.bunge@wsj.com; @jacobbunge)

FUTURES MARKETS

Livestock Futures Finish Lower -- Market Talk

1517 ET - Livestock futures finished trading down, with live cattle futures down 0.6% to $1.28425 per pound and lean hog futures down 0.6% to 92.525 cents per pound. This is a departure from today's open, and for cattle it comes amid mixed signals for beef demand. "Slaughter numbers for the month of June were 103% of a year ago," says Karl Setzer of AgriVisor. "June beef production was also a fifteen-year high. Even with these increases, yearly beef production is only up 1% on the year as cattle weights are down." Setzer adds that years with heavy culling of supplies often see similar conditions. (kirk.maltais@wsj.com; @kirkmaltais)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 27, 2021 17:25 ET (21:25 GMT)

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