Consumer Business Review: Smithfield Goes To BRAZIL, Goodyear LOVES Soybeans

Here are Tuesday’s top stories:

Shares of several air carriers are down Tuesday, including those of United Continental Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:UAL) and Spirit Airlines (NASDAQ:SAVE), reflecting the upholding of new airline ticketing by an appeals court. One new rule requires that carriers will have to prominently display the total price of a ticket in their print ads, including taxes.

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Supply and demand for corn, impacted by the drought, is prompting U.S. foods giants such as Smithfield Foods, Inc. (NYSE:SFD), to begin soon to import the commodity from Brazil where the price is reportedly about $290 per metric ton. Corn futures in the United States have reached some $354, as the drought continues. Tyson Foods, Inc. (NYSE:TSN) will not say at the moment whether it is doing the same.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (NYSE:GT) says that it intends to use soybean oil instead of petroleum in the production of its tires. The company explains that soybean oil can increase the tread life of a tire by 10 percent while reducing the requirement of petroleum-based oil by 7 million gallons per year. If the production change is realized, the soybean-produced tires could be showing up in showrooms by 2015, but one question remains: what might this nuance do to the price of tofu?

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