Article

Commodities: Cheese down, wheat up and gasoline unchanged

The price for cheese dropped during the week, wheat increased and gasoline remained unchanged.

September 28, 2015 by Travis Wagoner — Editor, Networld Media Group

The price for cheese dropped during the week, wheat increased and gasoline remained unchanged. Here’s a look at the rest of the market.

Cheese

Average block cheese decreased during the week on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, dropping 5 cents from Monday to Tuesday. The prices were $1.64 Monday, $1.60 Tuesday and $1.59 Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The prices were $1.70 the previous Monday, $1.70 Tuesday, $1.61 Wednesday, $1.66 Thursday and $1.69 Friday.

Wheat

Wheat prices increased again this week, hitting $5.23 on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, up from $5.11.

Gasoline and diesel fuel

Monday's nationwide average for regular unleaded gasoline remained at $2.29 from the previous week, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Prices down from $2.51 a month ago, and are significantly lower than this time last year, when consumers were paying $3.34 at the pump.

Mid-range unleaded is down 1 cent to $2.57, while Monday's premium unleaded price was $2.79, also down 1 cent from last week.

The nationwide average for diesel fuel is $2.49, a drop of 2 cents from a week ago. Diesel prices are also down from $2.58 a month ago, and are more than $1 down from a year ago, when prices were $3.74.

Natural gas

Natural gas prices declined in most market locations across the country over the report week (Wednesday, Sept. 16, through Wednesday, Sept. 23), with changes remaining relatively small.
 
The Henry Hub spot price began the week at $2.68 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday and ended the week at $2.59/MMBtu.
 
At the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the price of the near-month futures contract (October 2015) began the report week at $2.660/MMBtu and ended the report week down at $2.569/MMBtu yesterday.

Pizza company stocks

Shares in Pizza Hut parent Yum! Brands Inc. closed Friday at $79, a drop from last Friday’s $80.15.

Domino's finished last week at $113, up $1.30 from last week’s $111.70.

Papa John's increased to $69.43, from last week’s $69.

Shares in Papa Murphy’s closed at $16.40, more than $1.50 down from last week’s last week’s $17.51. Three weeks ago it closed at $16.61.

About Travis Wagoner

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Travis Wagoner spent nearly 18 years in education as an alumni relations and communications director, coordinating numerous annual events and writing, editing and producing a quarterly, 72-plus-page magazine. Travis also was a ghostwriter for an insurance firm, writing about the Affordable Care Act. He holds a BA degree in communications/public relations from Xavier University.