Saturday, August 9, 2008

Corn slumps to five-month low as dollar rallies. And, General Mills will kill with lower costs (GIS)

From MarketWatch:
Corn futures slumped more than 4% Friday to the lowest since February, as the dollar rallied, putting downward pressures on dollar-denominated commodities prices.

Corn futures for December delivery tumbled 24 cents, or 4.4%, close at $5.18 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, the lowest closing level since Feb. 1. Corn is now 35% lower than its record high near $8 hit in June.

Corn has fallen four out of five days this week. It finished the week down more than 11%....MORE

From BloggingStocks:
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says this consumer-products titan has weathered the storm and should enjoy lower inputs.

General Mills (NYSE: GIS) (Cramer's Take) hits another 52-week high. This company has been one of the great standout performers this year, just a juggernaut, even though it is a gigantic buyer of grains and a huge user of cardboard boxes and plastic wrapping. Plus, it needs gasoline to deliver product. Some of this move has to be attributed to projections of huge declines in raw costs. Those are going to happen, as we know from the commodities....MORE