Article

Commodities: Another nice bounce for Domino's

Aside from Domino's, which jumped in value, most pizza restaurateurs had little to celebrate last week in either trading of their own brands or prices paid on the commodities market.

September 18, 2017 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Aside from Domino's, which jumped in value last week, most pizza restaurateurs had little to celebrate last week in either trading of their own brands or prices paid on the commodities market. Gas, alhough falling over the last week in price, remains 40 cents higher this year than last year. Wheat is moving up in prices paid, as well.  

Cheese

Cheese prices were down last week, dropping 3 cents from $1.64 at the market's close on Sept. 8, to $1.61 last Friday.

Wheat

Compared to last week, wheat prices jumped as December Chicago wheat remained in a short-term uptrend. Wheat's long-term forward curve reflected a bearish supply and demand situation, according to the USDA Missouri Department of Agricultural Market News Service.

Weekly export sales and shipments for wheat showed a total of 11.6 million bushels and 16.1 million bushel, respectively, for the 2017-2018 marketing year. These numbers could be viewed as neutral for wheat.  

Kansas City U.S. No. 1 Hard Red Winter, ordinary protein rail bid was 1/4 to 30 1/4 cents higher from $4.32-$5.87 per bushel. Kansas City U.S. No. 2 Soft Red winter rail bid was not quoted. St. Louis truck U.S. No. 2 Soft Red Winter terminal bid was 16 cents higher from $4.33-$4.38 per bushel. 

Minneapolis and Duluth U.S. No. 1 Dark Northern Spring, 14.0 to 14.5 percent protein rail, was 27 1/4 cents lower from $6.97 1/2-$7.02 1/2 per bushel. Portland U.S. Soft White wheat rail was steady to 15 to 20 cents higher from $5.10-$5.35 per bushel.

Gasoline and diesel fuel

                             Regular           Mid-Grade           Premium           Diesel

Current Avg.           $2.623            $2.893              $3.137            $2.719

Week Ago Avg.       $2.668            $2.921              $3.161            $2.713

Month Ago Avg.      $2.341            $2.621              $2.866            $2.528

Year Ago Avg.         $2.200            $2.460              $2.700            $2.357

Natural gas

Natural gas spot prices rose at most locations this report week ( Sept. 6-13). The Henry Hub spot price rose from $2.93 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday to $2.99/MMBtu yesterday. As a cool weather front moved across the country into the Northeast, prices dipped at most trading locations on Friday, but they generally rebounded by the end of the week.

At the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the October 2017 contract price rose 6 cents from $3.000/MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.058/MMBtu yesterday. 

Net injections to working gas totaled 91 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ending Sept. 8. Working natural gas stocks total 3,311 Bcf, which is 5 percent less than the year-ago level and 1 percent more than the five-year (2012–16) average for this week. 

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, rose by 23 cents, averaging $7.33/MMBtu for the week ending Sept. 13. The prices of natural gasoline, ethane, propane, and butane rose by 3, 6, 4 and 2 percent, respectively. The price of isobutane remained flat week over week. 

According to Baker Hughes, for the week ending Friday, Sept. 8, the natural gas rig count increased by 4 to 187. The number of oil-directed rigs fell by 3 to 756. The total rig count increased by 1, and it now stands at 944.

Pizza company stocks

On the New York Stock Exchange Friday, Domino's Pizza closed at $194.68, up a healthy $8.27 cents from the previous week's closing price of $186.41. Over at the NASDAQ, Papa John's hit $72.65 at the close of trading Friday, up slightly from $72.54 the previous Friday,

Meanwhile, Pizza Hut parent, Yum! Brands, closed at $75.25 Friday, down from $76.48 a week earlier, while take-and-bake franchise, Papa Murphy's hit $5.14 at the close Friday, down from $5.22 at the previous week's close. 

 Photo: iStock

About S.A. Whitehead

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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.