Pilgrim’s Pride is the second-largest poultry producer in the US (59% of 2024 sales), the UK (29% including other European sales), and Mexico (12%). Its UK and European arm also includes pork operations from the 2019 acquisition of Tulip. Pilgrim's sells to chain restaurants, food processors, food distributors, and retail chains. Most of its US and Mexican sales come from fresh chicken, while prepared chicken and pork constitute most of its UK and European sales. JBS owns more than 80% of Pilgrim’s Pride's outstanding shares, though it failed to acquire the remaining stake in 2021 after a special board committee deemed JBS’ offer undervalued Pilgrim’s Pride.

The stories of the legendary stock-market sell-offs are often reduced to two or three words. Black Tuesday. Dot-Com bubble. Subprime mortgages. Long-Term Capital. The Pandemic. We can now add "Trump Trade Wars" to this undistinguished list. The S&P 500 has not officially entered a bear market, which is defined as a 20% drop from the recent highs. But it is pretty close at -17%. The dust hasn't settled on the administration's tariff plans, though, let alone on the responses from around the globe, and investors have been inclined to sell first and ask questions later. If the S&P 500 does drop another 300 basis points, then U.S. investors will be entering their ninth bear market since the 1960s. How did those go? The average peak-to-trough decline for the S&P 500 during the previous eight bear markets was 38% (compared to the current 17%). The market weakness on average lasted 16 months (compared to the current 1.5). We note that the past two bear markets have been shorter than normal, averaging eight months, and that the market pain hasn't been as severe, with average peak-to-trough declines of 29%. In the last bear market, the nation's economy didn't even enter a recession. That points to one positive in the current environment: the low unemployment rate of 4.2%. Another silver lining has been the decline in interest rates, with the 10-year Treasury yield falling from 4.8% in January to below 4.0% today. The Fed is in position to lower rates somewhat, but will want to be thoughtful in its approach in order to avoid even more market panic. Our bearish case scenario for the year called for trouble from trade wars and a deflation of tech-stock valuations, with the unemployment rate ultimately headed back toward 5.0% and the market in a correction. That's where we are now.

Pilgrim's Pride Corporation was founded in 1946 and produces, processes, and distributes fresh, frozen, and value-added chicken products to retailers, distributors, and food-service companies. It exports chicken products to about 120 countries, and operates a vertically integrated business model. This means that PPC controls almost all of its business operations, from raising livestock to distribution of final products. The company is broken down into three segments: 1) U.S., 2) U.K. and Europe, and 3) Mexico. The U.S. segment is the largest in net sales. The company deals with poultry products in all segments, while it only deals with pork products in the U.K. Its two largest customers contributed just over an eighth of total revenue. Across 14 U.S. states, the U.K., Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Europe, Pilgrim's operates 39 production facilities and 27 prepared foods facilities. Pilgrim's owns Moy Park, a poultry and prepared foods company in the U.K. and Europe, as well as Tulip Limited, a pork and prepared foods company in the U.K. Headquartered in Greeley, Colorado, the company has over 61,200 employees. Pilgrim's has a market cap of more than $11.6 billion.

It's a bloodbath on Wall Street. Investors are having trouble making sense of the new widespread Trump tariffs. So far, at midday, buyers are not jumping in to take advantage of the dips, which are more like valleys. Could today possibly be a Black Thursday? The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is down 17 basis points and is at 4.03%. Oil has dropped 8% and is now at $66 per barrel. Bitcoin is down 6% and is near $82,000.