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Commodities: Pizza stocks rise as fall starts

The leaves may be falling, but pizza stock prices were all up last week, the first week of fall.

September 25, 2017 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

The start of fall took on the rosy tone of a sugar maple leaf as all four brands monitored by this web site rose in value over the course of trading last week. 

Cheese

The price paid for cheese remained flat, coming in at the close of trading Friday precisely where it was the previous week, at $1.61.

Wheat

Compared with the week before, wheat was mostly higher. Winter wheat is seeing short-term upward trends, though the long-term commercial view remains bearish.  

Weekly export sales and shipments for wheat totaled 11.3 million bushels and 15.7 million bushels respectively for the 2017–2018 marketing year. These numbers could be viewed as bearish for wheat.  

Kansas City U.S. No. 1 Hard Red Winter, ordinary protein rail bid was 2 1/2 cents lower to 7 1/2 cents higher, rising from $4.39 1/2 to $5.84 1/2 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 5 cents higher, rising from $4.38 to $4.43 per bushel.  

Minneapolis and Duluth U.S. No. 1 Dark Northern Spring, 14.0 to 14.5 percent protein rail, was 1 3/4 to 6 3/4 cents higher, at $6.99 1/4 to $7.09 1/4 per bushel. Portland U.S. Soft White wheat rail was steady to 2 1/2 cents higher, at $5.10 to $5.37 1/2 per bushel.

Gasoline and diesel fuel

Natural gas

Natural gas spot prices rose at most locations east of the Rockies this report week (Wednesday, Sept. 13, to Wednesday, Sept. 20). The Henry Hub spot price rose 15 cents, from $2.99/MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.14/MMBtu on Tuesday and remained at that price yesterday, which is the highest Henry Hub spot price since May 23. 

Warmer temperatures in the  half of the country — more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit above historical norms, in some cases —influenced spot price movements. The previous week, temperatures in the East were generally below seasonal norms. At the Chicago Citygate, prices increased 10 cents, from $2.95/MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.05/MMBtu yesterday after reaching a weekly low of $2.84/MMBtu on Friday.

At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the October 2017 contract price rose 4 cents from $3.058/MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.094/MMBtu yesterday.

Net injections to working gas totaled 97 billion cubic feet for the week ending September 15. Working natural gas stocks are 3,408 Bcf, which is 4 percent less than the year-ago level and 2 percent more than the five-year (2012–2016) average for this week. 

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, rose 30 cents, averaging $7.63/MMBtu for the week ending Sept. 20. The prices of natural gasoline, ethane, propane, butane, and isobutane rose 3, 6, 4, 3 and 3 percent, respectively.

According to Baker Hughes, for the week ending Friday, Sept. 15, the natural gas rig count decreased by 1 to 186. The number of oil-directed rigs fell by 7 to 749. The total rig count decreased by 8, and now stands at 936.

Pizza company stocks

The start of fall last week ushered in some sweet gains for all the brands monitored weekly by this site. Domino's closed the trading week at $197.21 — up $3.46 in value from the previous Friday's close of $194.67.

Pizza Hut parent, Yum Brands, also experienced a bump in the price, closing the week at $75.97 — up 71 cents from the previous week's close at $75.26. Fellow Louisville, Kentucky-based competitor Papa John's International closed Friday at $72.96, up from $72.65 the previous Friday. 

Finally, take-and-bake brand, Papa Murphy's closed up 60 cents higher from the previous week's close, at $5.74, in trading on the Nasdaq. 

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.