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Commodities: Prices echo country's 'case of nerves' this week

With one day to go before a potentially game-changing presidential election, pizza stocks echoed the country's overall trepidation and commodity prices were no real pick-me-upper, either.

November 7, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

With one day to go before a potentially game-changing presidential election, pizza stocks echoed the country's overall trepidation about all things related to the national economy, with all but Domino's falling in value over the week. Commodity prices were no real pick-me-upper, either, with cheese prices soaring, wheat split, but fuels basically holding steady or falling.  

Cheese
The bad news starts here with cheese prices continuing to soar, up 33 cents in just the past two weeks, to close at $1.90 Friday. Over last week alone, the price of cheese grew from $1.73 when the markets opened on Halloween morning, to $1.90 at the close Friday. 

Wheat

Wheat prices were mixed on the week, split between higher prices paid for both hard and soft red winter wheat and some soft white wheat, but substantially lower for Northern Spring wheat.

According to the USDA, Kansas City U.S. No. 1 hard red winter, ordinary protein rail bid was 3 1/2 to 16 1/2 cents higher from $4.25 1/2 to $4.95 1/2 per bushel. Kansas City U.S. No. 2 Soft Red winter rail bid was not quoted, but St. Louis truck U.S. No. 2 soft red winter terminal bid was 3 cents higher at $4.06 per bushel.  

Minneapolis and Duluth U.S. No. 1 Dark Northern Spring, 14 to 14.5 percent protein rail, was 15 3/4 to 25 3/4 cents lower, from $6.09 3/4 to $6.24 3/4 per bushel. Portland U.S. soft white wheat rail was 2 1/2 cents lower to 8 cents higher, from $4.70 to $4.77 per bushel.

Gasoline and diesel
Some mildly reassuring news came from the auto fuel report, which showed prices for everything but diesel appear to moderating, and have even fallen below the prices paid just a month ago. Diesel, however, is higher than it was last month, though still below last year's average at this time. 

The average price of a gallon of regular was the same as it was last year at this time, at $2.22. That's up a penny from the previous week, but down 4 cents from the previous month. That is essentially the same trend that mid-grade and premium gas tell this week, with the average price of those at $2.48 for mid-grade and $2.73 for premium. 

Diesel fuel, on the other hand, has risen in price from last month, though still lower than last year, with the average price this morning coming in at $2.42. That's the same as last week, but a couple of cents higher than a month ago, and up 3 cents a gallon from last year at this time.

Natural gas 
Natural gas spot prices were mixed this report week (Wednesday, Oct. 26 to Wednesday, Nov. 2). The Henry Hub spot price fell from $2.68/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.27/MMBtu yesterday. The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, fell by 20 cents, closing at $6.20/MMBtu for the week ending Oct. 28. The price of natural gasoline, ethane, propane, butane, and isobutane all fell, by 3 percent,  7 percent, 1 percent, 2 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

According to Baker Hughes, for the week ending Friday, Oct. 28, the natural gas rig count increased by six to 114. The number of oil-directed rigs fell by two to 441. The total rig count climbed by four, and it now stands at 557. 

Spot prices were down outside the Northeast this report week, with the Henry Hub spot price falling 41 cents from $2.68/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.27/MMBtu yesterday, after reaching a high of $2.80/MMBtu on Monday. At the Chicago Citygate, prices decreased 65 cents, from $2.82/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.17/MMBtu yesterday. Prices at PG&E Citygate in Northern California fell 49 cents, down from $3.07/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.58/MMBtu yesterday. The price at SoCal Citygate decreased 65 cents from $2.84/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.19/MMBtu yesterday. The largest price decreases occurred Tuesday, as weather forecasts began to predict another stretch of warm weather.

Pizza stocks
It was a rocky week for pizza stocks, with most losing value over the week, except for Domino's which experienced another nice increase on the week.

Yum Brands, parent of Pizza Hut, which also split off from Yum China officially last Monday, fell 34 cents to $59.81 Friday. Domino's, on the other hand, had another profitable week, adding 59 cents to its value to close Friday at $166.76. 

Papa John's also lost value on the week, falling to $77.52 Friday, down 61 cents. The same trend was echoed by Papa Murphy's stock, which last week fell 24 cents to close the week at $3.78. 

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.