AG rally today

SYNGENTA SPOUTS GROWTH AS PLANTING STARTS

Goodness knows what we’re going to use in our Chex Mix snacks this holiday season, but prices for agricultural products like rice and corn continue to skyrocket, giving a lift to the agricultural chemicals and seeds business. Shares of Swiss ag products company Syngenta (SYT) pace the rally with a gain that has lifted its depositary shares to new highs. The company, which makes most of its sales off products that help farmers protect crops, came through with a buoyant outlook for the year, saying that it expected to grow earnings by something on the order of 20%.

It had previously been forecasting a 15% bump in profits. The company indicated that, given the high prices that crops command these days, farmers have even more of an interest in making sure they get to harvest safely. What’s unusual isn’t the bump in crop prices - the surge in ag commodities has hardly been a secret - so much as it is the timing, inasmuch as it comes at the advent of the planting season. Other names in the sector, such as seed giant Monsanto (MON) also are having a big day, throwing off some of the weakness sparked by this week’s release of the U.S. government’s crop planting survey, which suggested farmers had dialed back their plantings of corn in favor of other crops, such as wheat and soybean.

Soybean specialist Bunge (BG) has also rallied, as the move in ag products broadens out. Still, we can’t help but wonder whether guests at our holiday soiree aren’t going to be disappointed by our offering of Bean Mix instead of Chex Mix