Bitcoin Price Plummets: BTC Falls Below $88,000 – What Investors Need To Know

Tyson Foods' decision to close a beef plant that employs nearly one third of residents of Lexington, Nebraska, could devastate the small city and undermine the profits of ranchers nationwide.

Closing a single slaughterhouse might not seem significant, but the Lexington plant employs roughly 3,200 people in the city of 11,000 and has the capacity to slaughter some 5,000 head of cattle a day. Tyson also plans to cut one of the two shifts at a plant in Amarillo, Texas, and eliminate 1,700 jobs there. Together those two moves will reduce beef processing capacity nationwide by 7-9%.

Consumers may not see prices change much at the grocery store over the next six months because all the cattle that are now being prepared for slaughter will still be processed, potentially just at a different plant. But in the long run, beef prices may continue to climb even higher than the current record highs — caused by a variety of factors from drought to tariffs — unless American ranchers decide to raise more cattle, which they have little incentive to do.

An increase in beef imports from Brazil, like President Donald Trump encouraged last week by slashing tariffs on the South American country, may help insulate consumers while ranchers and feedlots struggle with high costs and falling prices.

Here's what we know about the impact of the plant closure and the changing tariffs:

A 'gut punch' to the community

Clay Patton, vice president of the Lexington-area Chamber of Commerce said Monday that Tyson's announcement Friday felt like a "gut punch" to the community in the Platte River Valley that serves as a key link in the agricultural production chain.

When it opened in 1990, the Lexington plant that Tyson later acquired revitalized and remade the formerly dwindling town by attracting thousands of immigrants to work there and nearly doubling the population.

When the plant closes in January, the ripple effects will be felt throughout the community, undermining many first-generation business owners and the investment in new housing, Patton said. Tyson said it will offer Lexington workers the chance to move to take open jobs at one of its other plants if they are willing to uproot their families for jobs hundreds of miles away.

"I'm hopeful that we can come through this and we'll actually become better on the other side of it," Patton said.

Elmer Armijo was struck by how established the community when he moved to Lexington last summer to lead First United Methodist Church. He described solid job security, good schools and health care systems and urban development — all in doubt now.

"People are completely worried," Armijo said. "The economy in Lexington is based in Tyson."

Many local churches, Armijo's included, are already offering counseling, food pantries and gas vouchers for community members.

Cattle prices falling in response

The prospect of losing a major buyer for cattle and increasing imports from Brazil, which already accounted for 24% of the beef brought into the country this year, only adds to doubts about how profitable the U.S. cattle business might be over the next several years, making it less likely that American ranchers will commit to raising more animals.

"There's a just a lack of confidence in the industry right now. And producers are unwilling to make the investment to rebuild," said Bill Bullard, president of Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America.

Boosting imports from Brazil has the potential to affect the market — much more than Trump's suggestion to increase imports from Argentina — since the country sends more beef to America than any other. But for steak lovers, the sky-high price of the cut isn't likely to be affected regardless, as most imports are lean trimmings that get mixed into ground beef.

Kansas State University agricultural economist Glynn Tonsor said it's hard to predict whether imports will continue to account for roughly 20% of the U.S. beef supply next year. He pointed out that Trump's tariffs have changed several times since they were announced in the spring and could quickly change again.

The only constant in the equation has been that consumers have continued to buy beef even as prices soar. Tonsor said on average Americans will consume 59 pounds (27 kilograms) of beef per person this year.

Tyson faces continued losses in the beef business

There has long been excess capacity in the meat business nationwide, meaning the nation's slaughterhouses could handle many more cattle than they are processing. That has only been made worse in recent years as the government has encouraged more smaller companies to open slaughterhouses to compete with Tyson and the other giants that dominate the beef business.

Tyson expects to lose more than $600 million on beef production this year after already reporting $720 million of red ink in beef over the past two years.

Tonsor said it was inevitable that at least one beef plant would close. Afterward, Tyson's remaining plants will be able to operate more efficiently at closer to full capacity.

Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University in Omaha, said the Lexington plant likely wasn't measuring up in the industry increasingly reliant on technological advancements that enhance productivity.

"It's very difficult to renovate or make the old plant fit the new world," said Goss, who completed an impact study for a new Sustainable Beef plant. The Lexington facility "just wasn't competitive right now in today's environment in terms of output per worker."

Source: Yahoo Finance

Bolsonaro told a hearing that he suffered medication-induced paranoia which prompted him to tamper with his ankle monitor [FILE: July 6, 2024]

A panel of four Supreme Court judges unanimously upheld on Monday a decision to incarcerate Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, after he was arrested over the weekend when he tampered with his ankle monitor.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Bolsonaro's detention on Saturday, citing fears he might try to escape custody if allowed to stay on house arrest, where he has been awaiting an appeal against his 27-year prison sentence for plotting a failed coup.

On Monday, Justices Flavio Dino, Cristiano Zanin and Carmen Lucia upheld de Moraes' order.

Why did Bolsonaro get arrested?

On Saturday, Brazilian authorities said the former, far-right president took a soldering iron to his ankle monitor.

De Moraes ruled on Monday that Bolsonaro had "willfully and consciously violated the electronic monitoring equipment."

The justice pointed at "very serious indications of a possible attempt to flee" during a vigil which Bolsonaro's son organized on Saturday outside his home, near the US embassy.

De Moraes added that the location and Bolsonaro's close ties to US President Donald Trump are further indicators that he may have tried to escape to the embassy to seek US asylum.

Authorities said the former, far-right president took a soldering iron to his ankle monitorImage: SEAPE/REUTERS

What did Bolsonaro say about tampering with the ankle monitor?

On Sunday, Bolsonaro told a hearing that he suffered medication-induced paranoia between Friday and Saturday, which was to blame for his tampering with the ankle monitor.

The former president said he "had no intention of fleeing."

The French AFP news agency cited another testimony by Bolsonaro in a video made public by the court, in which he reportedly said he used the soldering iron on the bracelet out of "curiosity."

Bolsonaro was convicted in September of plotting to overturn the 2022 election result that brought leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to office.

Source: DW

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order aimed at launching a pan-government venture to build an integrated artificial intelligence platform that will use federal scientific data.

The venture, which Trump called the "Genesis Mission," aims to boost scientific research and fast track discoveries by using AI and massive government scientific datasets.

"The Genesis Mission will build an integrated AI platform to harness Federal scientific datasets… to train scientific foundation models and create AI agents to test new hypotheses, automate research workflows, and accelerate scientific breakthroughs," Trump wrote in the order.

The effort will involve the Department of Energy, the National Science and Technology Council, and U.S. National Laboratories, the order said.

Trump instructed the DOE to create a government AI experimentation platform integrating U.S. supercomputers and data to create foundation AI models and also power robotic laboratories.

Trump has touted U.S. dominance in AI as a main goal for his administration, and has also prioritized beating China in the technology. He had earlier this year ordered his administration to produce an AI action plan to maker the U.S. the "world capital" in AI.

Source: Investing

AUDUSD – Last Friday's bounce from new three-month low (bears were contained by the top of thick weekly Ichimoku cloud) was repeatedly obstructed by broken 200DMA (0.6458 – reverted to resistance)

Monday's action is moving within limited range and shaped in long-legged Doji candle and signals indecision.

Conflicting fundamental signals (the latest dovish comments from Fed official revived expectations of December rate cut but countered by still prevailing concerns about inflation that may keep the central bank's rates on hold next month) contribute to the current situation.

Investors also focus on Australia's inflation report (due on Wednesday and the first time to be released on monthly basis, replacing old system of quarterly reports).

Technical picture remains bearishly aligned on daily chart (MA's in bearish setup / negative momentum), with reaction on 200DMA to provide fresh signal.

Close above the moving average (0.6458, also Fibo 23.6% of 0.6580/0.6412) to add fresh optimism, though more work at the upside (lift above 0.6500 zone) needed to verify signal.

Conversely, repeated close below 200DMA to keep the downside at increased risk of violation of Aug 21 low (0.6414) and nearby Fibo 38.2% of larger 0.5914/0.6706 (0.6404).

Res: 0.6467; 0.6481; 0.6500; 0.6520

Sup: 0.6421; 0.6414; 0.6372; 0.6350

Source: ACTIONFOREX

Gold steadied, after surging in the previous session due to increased confidence that the US will cut interest rates next month.

Bullion was trading around $4,140 an ounce, having gained nearly 2% on Monday. The jump was fueled by comments from Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller, who advocated a rate cut in December due to a soft US labor market. Gold tends to benefit from lower rates as it doesn't pay interest.

Swap traders are pricing in a nearly 80% chance of a quarter-point cut at the Fed's next meeting. New York Fed President John Williams also said on Friday he sees room for a "near-term" rate cut. A six-week US government shutdown, the longest in history, delayed the release of key data, making remarks from central bankers one of the few clues for traders when predicting the Fed's next move on interest rates.

Gold rose 0.1% to $4,140.66 an ounce as of 7:49 a.m. Singapore time. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index ended flat on Monday. Silver edged lower, while platinum and palladium were steady.

Source: Bloomberg Europe

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday establishing the "Genesis Mission," a federal effort to boost innovation using artificial intelligence — the latest step by the administration to promote AI technology and its adoption.

The effort aims to better coordinate research done by agencies across the government and more effectively integrate AI tools to achieve more scientific breakthroughs, according to Michael Kratsios, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, who spoke to reporters on the order ahead of Trump's signature.

The mission will harness the computing resources of the Department of Energy's national labs to tap federal datasets and enable more experiments utilizing AI, Kratsios added, predicting the effort would help shorten the timelines for scientific discoveries.

Partnerships with private-sector companies, including Nvidia Corp., Dell Technologies Inc., HPE and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., will boost supercomputing resources at the labs, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details on the order. The official cited recent announcements from those companies as a model for potential new ones.

Officials on Monday said the push would accelerate scientific discoveries in materials engineering, health sciences and energy. And they sought to cast the innovation gains as critical to helping bolster production and lower prices, another key priority for the administration as it seeks to address voter concerns about living costs.

"With the power of AI, America is on the brink of a scientific revolution," Kratsios said Monday.

The massive computing resources needed for AI's development and use, though, rely on energy-hungry data centers, which has spurred worries that the adoption of the technology will only increase strains on the US electric grid.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Monday said the Genesis initiative would help counter rising energy costs, saying one of its "ultimate goals" in the energy space is to "bring more energy on, make our electricity grid more efficient and reverse price rises that have infuriated American citizens."

"We're going to stop the rise of price of energy. First, it'll plateau, and ultimately will push downward pressure on the prices of electricity," Wright said.

The initiative was previewed earlier in November by Department of Energy Chief of Staff Carl Coe, who cast it as an effort to signal that the Trump administration sees the race to develop AI technology as just as important as the space race and the World War II-era Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb.

Kratsios on Monday called it the "largest marshaling of federal scientific resources since the Apollo program" — the US mission to send humans to the moon and bring them back to Earth safely.

Earlier: Trump Plans to Unveil 'Genesis Mission' to Boost AI Development

Trump has frequently hailed the promise of AI and made its development a top priority for his administration, pushing policies he says are critical to ensuring the US wins a race with China and others to advance the technology. Through a host of executive orders, Trump has moved to ease regulatory burdens to make it easier for companies to build AI infrastructure and power data centers and for allies to obtain key hardware and software.

He's also pushed to block state-level regulation in the US, arguing for a federal standard. The president is preparing an executive order that would allow the Department of Justice to sue states over artificial intelligence regulations it deems unconstitutional.

Source: Bloomberg Europe