The Swine Flu outbreak originating from Mexico has dominated headlines in recent days, but from a purely financial point of view this potentially global pandemic has created some decent trading opportunities for those traders who have no qualms about benefiting from such news.

On the stock markets the major airline and travel stocks have fallen sharply whereas pharmaceutical stocks have risen as they obviously stand to benefit if they can come up with a vaccine to fight this disease.

One area that has been overlooked by many traders is that of pork itself - where the Swine flu actually originates. The price of pork bellies has fallen sharply since this news first emerged and a few savvy traders will have been quick to trade this market because the May contract (PB.KO9), for example, has fallen from 82 to just 76.45 in recent days.

Even though medical experts have said that pork is still safe to eat, consumer demand will inevitably fall in the near future because people always take the safe option despite such warnings, so in many ways this was an obvious trade.

Whether it falls much further remains to be seen, but if the outbreak starts to spread around the world in huge numbers, then it’s a real possibility.

 

 

Filed under: Commodities

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!