After selling its stake in Beyond Meat in the spring, Tyson Foods' next bet is on plant-based shellfish.
Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of the meat processing company, is investing in New Wave Foods. Tyson Ventures CFO Tom Mastrobuoni declined to discuss the financial terms of deal but said that Tyson took a minority stake of less than 20% in New Wave.
The start-up, which was founded in 2015, makes plant-based shrimp from seaweed, soy protein and natural flavors.
"I tasted it for the first time in a cafe in Palo Alto, and I had no idea I was eating plant-based shrimp," Mastrobuoni said.
After shrimp, New Wave is planning to tackle crab and lobster. Shrimp is the most consumed seafood in the world, according to co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Michelle Wolf.
"From a business perspective, it made sense because of the market opportunity," Wolf said.
While there are a number of companies tackling plant-based fish like salmon or tuna alternatives, New Wave is one of the few trying to sell crustacean substitutes. Mastrobuoni said that the lack of competition made New Wave a more attractive investment.
Tyson will leverage its scale and network to help accelerate New Wave's growth.
"We've said this all along — alternative protein is an 'and' concept for Tyson, it's not an 'or,' " Mastrobuoni said.
For now, New Wave Foods' distribution is limited to three food-service locations rather than restaurants. CEO Mary McGovern said the company plans to target food service first, in part because 80% of shrimp consumption in the U.S. happens outside the home.
New Wave is Tyson Ventures' ninth investment since starting the fund in 2016. Mastrobuoni declined to disclose any track record of the fund's performance.
Tyson isn't the only traditional food company branching out into plant-based foods. Hormel and Kellogg announced plans Wednesday to produce plant-based meat brands.
Iowa officers are clearing the air on gun laws after Walmart asked customers to no longer openly carry firearms in its stores. Law enforcement officials say if a ...
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will update the public on his outlook in a discussion Friday with the head of the Swiss National Bank.
Photo:
sarah silbiger/Reuters
Federal Reserve officials are gearing up to reduce interest rates at their next policy meeting in two weeks, most likely by a quarter-percentage point, as the trade war between the U.S. and China darkens the global economic outlook.
The idea of an aggressive half-point cut to battle the slowdown hasn’t gained much support inside the central bank, according to interviews with officials and their public speeches.
While market-determined interest rates have tumbled, signaling a dimmer outlook for growth and inflation, many Fed officials believe that the 10-year U.S. expansion can continue at a modest pace and inflation will gradually rise to their 2% target.
“The economy is in a good place, but not without risk and uncertainty,” said New York Fed President
John Williams
in a speech Wednesday. “Our role is to navigate a complex and at times ambiguous outlook to keep the economy growing and strong.”
An important update on the labor market Friday, plus new readings on retail sales and inflation next week, could reshape officials’ outlook. Fed Chairman
Jerome Powell
will also update the public on his outlook in a discussion Friday with the head of the Swiss National Bank.
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Markets already expect the Fed to cut interest rates modestly at the Sept. 17-18 policy meeting. Investors place a 90% probability on a quarter-percentage-point rate cut and a 10% probability on a larger, half-point cut, according to CME Group.
Mr. Williams, a top lieutenant to Mr. Powell, didn’t push back against those expectations in his speech. Increased uncertainty, he said, called for “vigilance and flexibility.”
Mr. Powell cited weaker global growth, trade uncertainty and muted inflation when he led his colleagues in July to cut interest rates to their current range between 2% and 2.25%. He called the move a midcycle adjustment, adding that it wasn’t necessarily the start of a “long cutting cycle.”
The global growth and trade outlook has deteriorated since July. U.S. government bond yields dropped sharply after President Trump’s decision to increase tariffs on Chinese imports last month. Beijing responded with retaliatory measures, prompting Mr. Trump to announce further increases in tariffs.
Yields on the 10-year Treasury note, which stood at 2.02% after the Fed announced its rate cut on July 31, have fallen to 1.46%, while yields on the two-year Treasury note have dropped to 1.44% from 1.89%.
Global manufacturing data have been soft, and revisions to U.S. economic output and employment data suggested the economy is on a slower track than previously thought.
Officials are set to release new economic and interest-rate projections at the meeting. Officials have stressed that shifts in economic conditions will guide policy changes, meaning they are likely to be open to more stimulus after the next rate cut—just as they were in their postmeeting statement in July.
Mr. Powell has weathered unusual and sustained criticism from Mr. Trump for not moving more aggressively to lower rates. The president last month suggested the central bank leader was a bigger enemy to the U.S. than Chinese President
Xi Jinping.
The Fed chief is weighing mixed advice inside his own institution.
In July, several regional Fed bank presidents were reluctant to cut rates at all, and two formally dissented against the decision.
St. Louis Fed President
James Bullard,
on the other hand, wants the Fed to move rates down more aggressively with a half-point move.
“We have seen a big inter-meeting move in bonds. Markets are expecting a lot less inflation and a lot less growth than the Fed is,” said Mr. Bullard in an interview Wednesday.
“We should take some signal” from bond markets that indicate “our rate is too high,” he said. “I’m nervous that our policy rate is above every other rate. It is not a good place for the Fed to be.”
Because markets have largely priced in an additional quarter-point cut at the Fed’s meeting in late October, Mr. Bullard said he saw little reason to delay, if officials concur with investors’ dimmer growth outlook. “Why not just align that now?” he asked.
Other officials have said the Fed shouldn’t overreact to market signals absent stronger evidence that weakness from the global economy or the manufacturing sector is spreading to the services sector or consumer spending.
Risks facing the U.S. economy are elevated, and it would be appropriate to cut rates aggressively if those risks become reality, said Boston Fed President
Eric Rosengren
in a speech Tuesday.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell is facing fears of an economic downturn, volatile markets and criticism from President Trump. WSJ's Nick Timiraos explains what pressures weighed on the Fed chief as he headed to this year's annual central bank conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Photo: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
“To date, these elevated risks have not become reality—at least not for the U.S. economy,” said Mr. Rosengren, who was one of the two regional bank presidents who dissented against the July decision to cut rates.
Many analysts see economic output growing at a rate a little above 2% in the third quarter.
Dallas Fed President
Robert Kaplan,
in an August interview, said broad declines in market-determined rates suggested the Fed’s policy stance might be too tight but cautioned against overreacting to those signals by making a half-point cut.
“Monetary policy, in my judgment, did not cause this,” said Mr. Kaplan.
Officials have said the trade fight is complicating policy because it involves making assumptions about hard-to-predict geopolitical risks.
Though there is an argument for the Fed to move aggressively to fight any economic slowdown risk quickly, Mr. Kaplan said the fast-changing trade landscape instead makes him cautious.
“When you have this amount of uncertainty and this frequency of changes, my reaction as a business person is not to speed up—it’s actually a little bit to slow down the cadence of it and maybe take a little bit more time,” said Mr. Kaplan.
Even those who have pushed for more-aggressive moves concede there are limits to how much the Fed may be able to stimulate an economy suffering from weaker business investment related to trade uncertainty.
“Monetary policy is a poor tool to undo the harm of trade war,” said Minneapolis Fed President
Neel Kashkari
in public remarks Wednesday, though he said officials needed to be ready to use that tool anyway.
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn's first court hearing will take place as early as March, his lawyer said Thursday.
Ghosn was arrested last November and is facing a trial for allegedly underreporting his remuneration and diverting company funds to an investment firm he effectively owns.
Nissan Motor Co. President and CEO Hiroto Saikawa admitted Thursday he was overpaid by an equity-linked remuneration program run by the company.
A day after he was reported to have received an extra tens of millions of yen under the so-called stock appreciation rights plan, Saikawa told reporters in Tokyo that “the operation of the (program) was different than it should have been.”
However, he denied ordering the payment, saying, “I thought the procedures were handled properly and I didn’t know (about the misconduct).”
Saikawa said he will return the excess amount to the automaker, while revealing that other executives have also received overpayments.
“It was one of the programs created under the leadership of (ex-Nissan Chairman Carlos) Ghosn,” he said.
Sources said earlier Nissan does not believe the overpayment broke the law, but that the matter will be reported to its board meeting next week and the carmaker will scrutinize whether in-house disciplinary measures are necessary.
Under the stock appreciation rights program — introduced by Nissan to raise morale among executives — directors can receive a bonus if the company’s share price performs well.
“Nissan must have known about the improper payment to Saikawa when it conducted its in-house probe into Ghosn,” Junichiro Hironaka, one of the former chairman’s defense lawyers, told reporters Thursday afternoon.
“It turned a blind eye to Saikawa and only went after Ghosn,” Hironaka said.
Ghosn was arrested last November and is facing trial for allegedly underreporting his remuneration, and diverting company funds to an investment firm he effectively owns.
He has denied all allegations, saying he is the victim of a “conspiracy” by Nissan executives who felt that a possible merger with alliance partner Renault SA would threaten its autonomy.
The former chairman’s first court hearing could be held as early as March at the Tokyo District Court, according to his defense counsel.
Ghosn’s former close aide Greg Kelly, accused of conspiring to underreport his former boss’s remuneration, said in a magazine interview published in June that Saikawa manipulated the execution date of his stock appreciation rights so as to receive an additional gain of ¥47 million ($443,000).
After Nissan dismissed Ghosn over the allegations, the automaker separated its management and audit operations in a bid to prevent concentration of power, and to enhance its governance.
Saikawa was appointed Nissan CEO in April 2017 and served as a close lieutenant of Ghosn, who remained chairman.
A rally in U.S. stocks is set to continue following news that U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators have set another round of talks for next month.
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Dow Industrial futures are higher by 0.7 percent, S&P 500 futures gained 0.6 percent and Nasdaq futures are rising by 0.8 percent.
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Asian markets also traded higher. China's Shanghai Composite finished the day 1 percent higher, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.3 percent and Japan's Nikkei closed up 2.1 percent, the highest level in a month.
Easing of tensions in Hong Kong also boosted markets as Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam withdrew an extradition bill that had led to months of violent protests.
In Europe, London's FTSE traded slightly lower, while German and French markets traded up by 0.6 percent.
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U.S. stocks rebounded on Wednesday, following Tuesday's selling. The S&P 500 gained 1.1 percent, the Dow Jones Industrials added 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 1.3 percent.
The economic agenda includes reports on jobless claims and private sector hiring ahead of Friday's release of the August employment report. It is estimated that non-farm payrolls increased by 158,000 last month.
