Smithfield Foods, Inc. (SFD)

[LCrigger]

Pork Catches the Flu
By Julian Murdoch

Forget about reality, perception is killing the pork contracts. The international overreaction has caused a similar outbreak in commodities prices and companies, but is it all just short term panic?

From Hard Assets Investor (excerpt):

"As you'd expect, the actual stocks of the companies making a living with pigs took a big hit as well:

Tyson (NYSE: TSN), Hormel (NYSE: HRL) and Smithfield (NYSE: SFD) all took a beating on Monday - with Smithfield suffering around a 12% drop in stock price. Smithfield has a major pig farm and processing operation in Mexico, and though it claims, loudly, that it is not the source of the flu, it hasn't been able to recover as well as Hormel, which is back even.

Beyond the immediate, gut reaction in pork-related stocks and commodities, people began speculating about other future ramifications."

The full article's up at http://www.hardassetsinvestor.com/features-and-interviews/1/1545-pork-catches-the-flu.html