(Bloomberg) -- The growing threat of a meat shortage is helping to lift shares of plant-based protein manufacturer Beyond Meat Inc.The stock jumped 41% last week, its biggest weekly gain since going public last May. The advance followed news of food plant closures that could reduce the amount of pork and beef products available for U.S. shoppers in the near future.“The market’s taking that as if there’s a shortage out there; Beyond Meat can potentially benefit,” said Rupesh Parikh, a senior analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. who tracks food, grocery and consumer products.A surge in demand could provide some needed relief for Beyond Meat, whose revenue depends heavily on food service and restaurant businesses pummeled by social-distancing measures and stay-at-home orders. Even with last week’s gain, the stock is far from its highs of last year and only three of the 19 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg recommend buying shares.Donald McLee, an...
(Bloomberg) -- The wave of U.S. meat-plant shutdowns in the past two weeks is barely noticeable in the share-price performance of their owners. In fact, JBS SA and Tyson Foods Inc. are up.That’s because what they’re losing in volume, they’re making up for in profitability. Morgan Stanley analysts say that probably won’t be changing anytime soon for beef at least, recommending investors take an overweight position in JBS.The following charts help explain why.The unprecedented slaughtering disruptions -- as workers fall ill to Covid-19 -- are tightening supply of fresh meat and raising the possibility of shortages for consumers.As a result, U.S. wholesale beef prices have surged to a record. Pork prices have also rallied.The opposite is true upstream. Plant shutdowns are exacerbating livestock gluts, with farmers struggling to find buyers and early reports of pig culling. Hog and cattle futures have slumped this month.So with surging fresh-meat prices and cheaper animals,...
(Bloomberg) -- In another winning week, shares in Zoom Video Communications Inc. ended on a sour note after Facebook Inc. disclosed plans for a competing video chat product.The news sent Zoom shares tumbling, eventually closing with a decline of 6.1% on Friday. Still, the stock managed to gain more than 5% for the week, fueled by a surge in users who have embraced the video-conferencing software for work and socializing while confined to their homes. Zoom’s shares have jumped more than 130% this year, vaulting the company into the ranks of some of the most valuable U.S. companies. At $44 billion, Zoom’s market capitalization is now bigger than nearly three-quarters of the companies in the S&P 500 Index.Investors have flocked to Zoom with much of the world home-bound to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus. On Wednesday, Zoom reported a 50% jump in users in the past three weeks. Along...
(Bloomberg) -- There’s no evidence that having the coronavirus protects patients from a second infection, the World Health Organization said. Global cases surpassed 2.8 million, with the U.S. now accounting for more than a quarter of all fatalities after topping 50,000.Deaths in Spain remained under 400 for a second day and Germany posted its lowest fatality rate in five days. Singapore had its smallest case increase in at least six days.Key DevelopmentsVirus Tracker: Cases top 2.8 million; deaths exceed 197,000There’s ‘no evidence’ people recovered from disease are safe: WHOTrump’s riff on disinfectant shows peril of improvised briefingsThe world’s highest death rate is in Europe’s capitalFixing nursing home death traps is top priorityCoronavirus will forever change airlines and the way we flySubscribe to a daily update on the virus from Bloomberg’s Prognosis team here. Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus. For a look back at this...
US President Donald Trumps on April 24 sought to clarify comments he made a day earlier about the possibility of injecting disinfectant into people's bodies to fight Covid-19. Trump said his comments were made sarcastically, but they prompted two of the biggest disinfectant makers to issue statements telling people not to ingest or inject their products. ...
