Article

Commodities: Cheese prices up, wheat drops

There was good and bad news on the pizza-maker's trading tally sheet this week, as most stocks saw a bump in value. Prices for essential commodities, however, got a shot of adrenaline.

April 24, 2017 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

There was good and bad news on the pizza-maker's trading tally sheet this week, as most stocks saw a bump in value. Prices for cheese, however, got a shot of adrenaline,  shooting up in value for the first time since mid-February. 

Cheese
Bids were up for the first time in a few months for that melty goodness that blesses most brands' pies. In fact, cheese prices closed the week up substantially at $1.55, the highest price paid for the dairy-based commodity since mid-February. 

Wheat
The dairy farmer's higher prices were fortunately countered by the wheat farmer's mostly lower prices this past week. In 2017, the winter wheat crop is off to a good start with no major problems as of yet.  
Weekly export sales for wheat came in at 20.3 mb (551,200 mt) with 15.2 mb 414,000 mt) for the 2016-2017 marketing year. Wheat was mostly 10 to 27 cents lower.  

Kansas City U.S. No. 1 Hard Red Winter, ordinary protein rail bid was 24 1/2 to 27 1/2 cents lower from $3.85 3/4-$4.49 3/4 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 22 to 23 cents lower from $3.86-$4.13 per bushel.  

Minneapolis and Duluth U.S. No. 1 Dark Northern Spring, 14.0 to 14.5 percent protein rail, was 11 3/4 cents higher at $6.22 per bushel. Portland U.S. Soft White wheat rail was 10 to 23 1/2 cents lower from $4.26 1/4-$4.70 per bushel.

Gasoline and diesel fuel
Gas prices over the last week remained in their long upward climb from last year's lows. A gallon of regular this morning went for $2.42 on average, up about a penny from last week and 12 cents from last month. Last year, we paid just $2.13 a gallon for the same amount of fuel. 

Mid-grade, premium and diesel prices were even more markedly up from last month and last year than their regular counterpart. For instance, this time last year, we were paying an average of $2.60 a gallon for premium and $2.14 for diesel. This morning, we paid on average 33 cents a gallon higher for premium and almost 40 cents per gallon more for diesel, which this morning averaged about $2.53 a gallon. 

Natural gas
Natural gas spot price movements around the United States were mixed for the seven-day period ending April 19. The Henry Hub spot price rose from $2.99 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) to $3.12/MMBtu last Wednesday. And while both demand and supply for this commodity fell over the last week, the natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, rose by 13 cents, averaging $6.50/MMBtu on April 19. 

The price of natural gasoline and ethane both fell by 1 percent. The price of propane, butane, and isobutane rose by 4, 5 and 3 percent respectively.

Pizza company stocks
As for pizza stocks last week, the news was good, except fofr Papa Murphy's, which lost some value in trading last week. 

At the close Friday, Domino's was trading at $179.30, up substantially from the price paid a week earlier of $174.04. Pizza Hut parent, Yum Brands, also had a fairly good week, rising in value from $63.79 at the close of trading on April 13, to $64.82 at the close last Friday.

Rival company, Papa John's also got a slight hug from the markets last week, rising to a closing value Friday of $78.83, up 22 cents from the previous Friday's rate of $78.61.The only value-loser last week was take-and-bake brand, Papa Murphy's, which closed trading Friday at $5.48, down from $5.66 the previous Friday. 

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.