Skippin’ painted Easter eggs… because egg prices are no yolk. Cal-Maine Foods, America’s largest egg producer, cracks open Q3 earnings tomorrow. In the same quarter a year ago, it was living sunny side up: its profit had 8X’d as egg prices soared (blame bird flu). This quarter might not go over as easy: the average US price for a dozen has fallen to $3 from $4.20 last year, and this January Cal-Maine reported a ~90% profit plunge. Cooling prices aren’t all they’re cracked up to be: eggs still cost nearly 2X what they did in 2021.
Canadian-tux time… Levi Strauss drops earnings Wednesday as blue-jean spending buckles. The 171-year-old retailer is trying to stitch up its biz by pushing head-to-toe “denim dressing” (picture: $80 denim corset) and focusing on direct-to-consumer sales (less Macy’s, more Levi dot com). D2C makes up 40%+ of Levi’s sales, and it wants to boost that to 55% by 2027 as its wholesale biz sags. In January the jeans icon reported weak sales growth and planned to lay off up to 15% of employees. Analysts expect more denim distress ahead.