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American Morning
Minding Your Business: Mad Cow Boost
Aired December 29, 2003 - 07:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This is Andy Serwer. Nice to see you, friend.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good to see you again.
HEMMER: Mad cow, some winners in this. Make sense of this, if you will.
SERWER: Yes, we are following this story and looking at the economic fallout of the made cow scare. And so far, the impact on the economy hasn't been that severe. Tell that, though, to beef producers. Beef prices are falling in Chicago, so they're getting hard hit.
If you look at companies like McDonald's and Outback, they are not reporting big drops in their business. Those stocks are only down about 5 or 4 percent -- not so terrible.
But there are some companies benefiting, as Bill has suggested, kind of an unlikely bunch here. Let's go through them here.
Bio-Rad, they do testing of mad cow and those diseases. You can see they're primarily in Europe and Japan. This is up since the scare was reported in the United States.
Cal-Maine Foods, this is a fascinating story, the only publicly- traded egg company in the United States out of Jackson, Mississippi. Their stock -- they were left for dead at the beginning of the year. They were thinking about going private. This stock is up 1,000 percent this year from 3 to 38. Unbelievable.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An egg company?
SERWER: Yes, eggs. Eggs. They make eggs. They produce eggs. They're cooperative with eggs.
O'BRIEN: They don't make eggs.
SERWER: The chickens make the eggs. Thank you for clarifying that.
O'BRIEN: Sure. Anything I can do to help.
SERWER: Let's talk about chicken a little bit, though -- specifically, Pilgrim's Pride, also Sanderson Farms, those stocks are up as well. Some people are suggesting the chicken companies might be saying, hey, our food is safe. No, no, no. No gloating here by alternative protein source companies at this point. But interesting stuff there, right?
O'BRIEN: That might be a little unseemly, I think.
SERWER: Yes, it would be.
HEMMER: And talk about technology. Wow! They make eggs.
SERWER: Yes, all right. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
O'BRIEN: He keeps (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: Yes, he will. Yes.
O'BRIEN: We're done. Want to do the market quickly?
SERWER: Yes, let's talk about that, a good week for the markets. Again, last week, the Dow up about just a half a percentage point, but we are, you can see, 46 points. The number is 10,324. The Nasdaq still yet to cross 2,000. We're at 1,973 there. And futures are stronger, significantly stronger this morning. So, we'll be seeing a higher open, at least it looks like that right now.
O'BRIEN: Think we'll go higher than 10,350?
SERWER: No. Maybe. Who knows?
HEMMER: Why that number?
SERWER: That's not that much.
O'BRIEN: It's -- you know, I love to bet.
SERWER: That's what market people are like. Maybe.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: Maybe.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks a lot.
SERWER: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired December 29, 2003 - 07:25 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: This is Andy Serwer. Nice to see you, friend.
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good to see you again.
HEMMER: Mad cow, some winners in this. Make sense of this, if you will.
SERWER: Yes, we are following this story and looking at the economic fallout of the made cow scare. And so far, the impact on the economy hasn't been that severe. Tell that, though, to beef producers. Beef prices are falling in Chicago, so they're getting hard hit.
If you look at companies like McDonald's and Outback, they are not reporting big drops in their business. Those stocks are only down about 5 or 4 percent -- not so terrible.
But there are some companies benefiting, as Bill has suggested, kind of an unlikely bunch here. Let's go through them here.
Bio-Rad, they do testing of mad cow and those diseases. You can see they're primarily in Europe and Japan. This is up since the scare was reported in the United States.
Cal-Maine Foods, this is a fascinating story, the only publicly- traded egg company in the United States out of Jackson, Mississippi. Their stock -- they were left for dead at the beginning of the year. They were thinking about going private. This stock is up 1,000 percent this year from 3 to 38. Unbelievable.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An egg company?
SERWER: Yes, eggs. Eggs. They make eggs. They produce eggs. They're cooperative with eggs.
O'BRIEN: They don't make eggs.
SERWER: The chickens make the eggs. Thank you for clarifying that.
O'BRIEN: Sure. Anything I can do to help.
SERWER: Let's talk about chicken a little bit, though -- specifically, Pilgrim's Pride, also Sanderson Farms, those stocks are up as well. Some people are suggesting the chicken companies might be saying, hey, our food is safe. No, no, no. No gloating here by alternative protein source companies at this point. But interesting stuff there, right?
O'BRIEN: That might be a little unseemly, I think.
SERWER: Yes, it would be.
HEMMER: And talk about technology. Wow! They make eggs.
SERWER: Yes, all right. Thank you. Thanks a lot.
O'BRIEN: He keeps (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: Yes, he will. Yes.
O'BRIEN: We're done. Want to do the market quickly?
SERWER: Yes, let's talk about that, a good week for the markets. Again, last week, the Dow up about just a half a percentage point, but we are, you can see, 46 points. The number is 10,324. The Nasdaq still yet to cross 2,000. We're at 1,973 there. And futures are stronger, significantly stronger this morning. So, we'll be seeing a higher open, at least it looks like that right now.
O'BRIEN: Think we'll go higher than 10,350?
SERWER: No. Maybe. Who knows?
HEMMER: Why that number?
SERWER: That's not that much.
O'BRIEN: It's -- you know, I love to bet.
SERWER: That's what market people are like. Maybe.
O'BRIEN: Yes, that's (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SERWER: Maybe.
O'BRIEN: All right, Andy, thanks a lot.
SERWER: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
