Article
Commodities: A painful week for pizza stocks
It was a fairly excruciating week for publicly traded pizza brands last week with prices in free fall from the start of trading last Monday.
January 23, 2017 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group
It was a fairly excruciating week for publicly traded pizza brands last week with prices in free fall pretty much from the start of trading last Monday. There was some good news, however, in the falling value of most major pizza commodities, but it likely was not enough to soothe the pain inflicted by the dropping stock values of the four major chains monitored by PizzaMarketplace.
Cheese
Cheese prices fell slightly at the close of trading last Friday when the price was just under $1.70, down 3 cents from the previous Friday's close when cheese sold for just under $1.73.
Wheat
Wheat prices were also lower last week, with Kansas City US No. 1 Hard Red Winter, ordinary protein rail bid going for 2 1/2 cents lower from $4.52 1/4 to $5.47 1/4 per bushel, according to the USDA Agricultural News Service. Kansas City US No. 2 Soft Red winter rail bid was not quoted.
St. Louis truck US No. 2 Soft Red Winter terminal bid was 2 cents lower to 9 cents higher at $4.14 per bushel. Minneapolis and Duluth US No 1 Dark Northern Spring, 14.0 to 14.5 percent protein rail, was 19 3/4 to 29 3/4 cents lower, from $6.69 1/4 to $6.89 1/4 per bushel. Portland US Soft White wheat rail was steady to 7 3/4 cents lower from $4.56 to 4.63 1/2 per bushel.
Gasoline and diesel fuel
The trend for fuel prices continues to have all grades markedly higher than last year at this time, slightly higher than the price last month, but still dropping slightly from the previous week. The average price of regular this morning was $2.31 a gallon, down 3 cents from last week, but up 4 cents from last month and jup a substantial 46 cents over the price last year at this time when we were paying $1.84 a gallon.
That same pattern was echoed across other grades, with mid-grade selling for $2.58 this morning, premium selling for $2.82, and diesel at $2.52 this morning. All three were down slightly from last week, up slightly from last month, but far higher — typically 45 cents or more — than the price paid last year at this time for same product.
Natural gas
Natural gas spot prices were mostly down across the country for the report week ending last Wednesday, Jan. 18. The Henry Hub spot price fell 3 cents from $3.28/MMBtu to $3.25/MMBtu. However, at the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the February 2017 contract price rose 8 cents from $3.224/MMBtu to $3.302/MMBtu.
Net working gas withdrawals from storage totaled 243 Bcf for the week ending Jan. 13. Working gas stocks stand at 2,917 Bcf, which is 3 percent below the five-year (2012–16) average for this week and 13 percent below last year at this time.
The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, fell by 11 cents, closing at $6.76/MMBtu for the week ending Jan. 13. The prices of natural gasoline, ethane, butane, and isobutane fell by 4, 2, 5 and 6 percent, respectively. The price of propane rose by 3 percent.
According to Baker Hughes, for the week ending Friday, Jan. 13, the natural gas rig count increased by 1 to 136. The number of oil-directed rigs fell by 7 to 522. The total rig count dropped by 6, and it now stands at 659.
Pizza company stocks
It was not a pretty week in trading for pizza restaurateurs with Domino's closing the week down 43 cents from the $168.30 price it opened trading with last Monday. It closed Friday at $167.87. Also on the New York Stock Exchange, Pizza Hut parent company, Yum Brands, dropped its value over the course of last week, from $64.83 at Monday's open down to $64.58 at the close of trading Friday.
But the steepest fall for all the brands monitored in our weekly commodities report came for Louisville-based Papa John's International, Inc on the Nasdaq, where its value dropped $2.52 over the course of last week, starting at $86.35 Monday morning and closing Friday at $83.83.
Smaller take-and-bake chain, Papa Murphy's also lost value last week, dropping 22 cents between Monday's open and Friday's close, when the stock went for $4.34.
About S.A. Whitehead
Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.
