Article

Commodities: Up, up and up ... mostly

Pizza stock prices have continued the steady rise that began in earnest in 2018.

January 22, 2018 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Pizza-making is as profitable as ever these days, at least for the publicly traded brands watched here weekly. Again this past trading week, three of the four brands watched by this site on the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ made nice gains in value. And that's a good thing, because just about every commodity pizza restaurateurs need is also doing well in trading, with values for all but wheat showing appreciable gains over the week. The good news is that vehicle fuel prices appear to be leveling off a little. 

Cheese
After nearly two months in the cellar, cheese prices last week rose to slightly above the early December levels. The commodity average of $1.57 at the close of transactions Friday, just a penny more than the Dec. 1 price of $1.56. 

Wheat
Compared with the previous week, wheat was mixed, at 3/4–7 cents lower. Kansas City U.S. No. 1 Hard Red Winter ordinary protein rail bid was 3/4–8 3/4 cents lower at $5.24 1/2–$6.26 1/2 per bushel. A 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 8–10 cents lower, at $4.25–$4.35 per bushel. Minneapolis and Duluth U.S. No. 1 Dark Northern Spring, 14 to 14.5 percent protein rail was not quoted.  Portland U.S. Soft White wheat rail was 1 1/4–7 cents lower, at $5.20–$5.32 per bushel.
 

Gasoline and diesel fuel
 
Natural gas
Natural gas spot prices rose at most locations during the report week (Wednesday, Jan. 10 to Wednesday, Jan. 17). The Henry Hub spot price rose from $3.11 per million British thermal units last Wednesday to $3.87/MMBtu yesterday. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the February 2018 contract price rose 33 cents from $2.906/MMBtu last Wednesday to $3.232/MMBtu yesterday.

Net withdrawals from working gas totaled 183 Bcf for the week ending Jan. 12. Working natural gas stocks are 2,584 Bcf, which is 12 percent less than the year-ago level and 12 percent lower than the five-year (2013–2017) average for the week.

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, rose 5 cents, averaging $8.31/MMBtu for the week ending Jan. 17. The price of propane fell 4 percent. The price of ethane, butane, and isobutane rose 9, 6 and 3 percent, respectively. The price of natural gasoline remained flat.

According to Baker Hughes, for the week ending Tuesday, Jan. 9, the natural gas rig count increased by five to 187. The number of oil-directed rigs rose by 10, to 752. The total rig count increased by 15, and now stands at 939.

Pizza company stocks
For most of the brands monitored by this site, stock prices have started off on a rosy note in 2018. Again this week, all but one brand reported gains in trading, signaling that investors are confident not only about the brands, but also about the pizza business in general. 

Powerhouse Domino's Pizza continued its weeks-long price escalation to close Friday at $213.54, up from $211.15 the previous week. Pizza Hut parent Yum Brands also rose further last week, up 19 cents on the week to $83.81 at the close Friday.

Even beleaguered Papa John's has returned to the game following the departure of controversial former CEO John Schnatter. Last week, the brand continue to trade up, closing Friday at $62.75, compared with $61.04 at the previous week's close.

Take-and-bake brand, Papa Murphy's was the only loser last week, closing at $5.53, down 21 cents from the previous week's closing price of $5.74. 
 

Photo: iStock

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.