By E. W.
Lang
A second case of China's deadly cononavirus was
found the United States today. Most markets responded with modest losses, owing
to the fear of unknown consequences.
Forty-one Chinese have died on the Mainland.
Sixty-three potential cases are being monitored in 22 of the Unites States.
Eleven U.S. cases have been confirmed negative. Australia has reported four
cases. This all began at one seafood market in the central city of Wuhan,
illegally selling wildlife.
The S & P 500 came off of recent highs today,
corn was down seven cents per bushel, beans likewise and hogs were down two
dollars per cwt. WTI Cride Oil lost 2.5%. 2020 average Class III MIlk Futures
lost five cents per cwt.today, after seeing significant gains earlier in the
week.
The significance of coronavirus in China is
probably greater than generally reported, given their less than free press
under government supervision. Public transportation has been shut down in some
areas, and some factories are now closed for the duration. 35 million people
(3% of the population) are under quarantine. This is all in addition to tariff
costs and other restrictions that, together, generate a lot of unknowns for
demand and world supply chains, thus world markets.
As I said, fear is governing for the time being,
and here's why. In 2003, the SARS - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -
redistributed $40 billion of the world economy when an outbreak of the SARS
corona virus in southern China caused an eventual 8,098 cases, resulting in 774
deaths in 17 countries.
At the close on Friday, barrel cheese was $1.61
per lb., blocks were $1.99; up five and three cents since Friday, last.
Butter was $1.86 per lb., down two after the shortened
trading week, as there were no trades on Monday in honour of Dr. King.
Class III Milk Futures ended Friday at an average
of $17.90 per cwt. for calendar 2020, up 30 cents this week. Class IV Futures
for 2020 average $17.94, down two cents since last week. Both numbers are near
five year highs.
Impossible Whoppers, trading in Syracuse, NY,
ended the week at $3.00 each, down from $5.59, owing to being a product that
Burger King customers don't want to buy or eat. For those unfamiliar,
Impossible Whoppers are made from plants, but the process is done in a lab,
much like one would make dog food. Real Whoppers, by contrast, are made by cows
eating plants and turning them in to milk and hamburger, all in accordance with
God's will. Real Whoppers remain an excellent value at two for $6.00 in the
Syracuse market.
Syracuse Burger King franchises normally sell 234
real Whoppers per day, Impossible Whopper sales were averaging 32 per day. I
suspect Impossible Whoppers will go the way of Mr. Kroc's Hula Burger at
McDonalds. Introduced for Pre-Vatican II Roman Catholics, embargoed from beef
on Fridays, the Hula was a short lived option. It was a slice of grilled
pineapple and a slice of cheese on a bun. Actually, the Hula sounds less
disgusting than a plant whopper, and it is also one less indulgence.