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Domino's suffers another down week on NYSE

Papa John's, Papa Murphy's and Pizza Hut all posted nice gains in value in stock trading last week, while Domino's continued to fizzle for another week. Commodity prices provided little cheer either, as all pizza staple ingredient prices but wheat continued to increase last week.

March 11, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Domino's was the lone brand of the four pizza chains monitored by this website weekly to suffer a loss in its stock value last week, while Papa John's, Papa Murphy's and Pizza Hut parent, Yum Brands all made gains on the week. On the commodities front, pizza makers and operators in search of a bright spot from last week's trading activity would be challenged to find it anywhere aside from U.S. wheat markets.

Cheese

In cheese trading last week, barrels closed at $1.37, while 40-pound blocks ended at $1.54. The weekly average for barrels was up 1 cent to $1.42, with blocks down nearly 5 cents on average for the week, to $1.56, according to the U.S.D.A. Agricultural Marketing Service.

Nationally, some cheese producers in the Eastern and Western U.S. told the department that they were seeing more demand, while many Midwestern cheese makers reported seasonal lulls in ordering.

Market momentum from late January/early February — when averages saw some sharp weekly rises — has settled somewhat. Even still, current prices have some buyers more actively making forward purchases in lieu of current/near-term ordering.

Wheat

Compared to the previous week, cash bids for wheat were down 1 to 25 cents, according to the U.S.D.A.-Missouri Department of Agriculture Market News. Export inspections for week ending Feb. 28 totaled 16.1 million bushels of wheat. Export sales for that week totaled 22.8 million bushels of wheat.  

Kansas City U.S. No. 1 Hard Red Winter, ordinary protein rail bid was 2 to 4 cents lower, from $5.57 1/2-$5.72 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 16 to 20 cents lower, from $4.63-$4.67 per bushel.  

Minneapolis and Duluth U.S. No. 1 Dark Northern Spring, 14.0 to 14.5 percent protein rail, was 1 1/4 cents lower, at $7.18 per bushel. Portland U.S. Soft White wheat rail was 5 to 25 cents lower, from $5.90-$6.30 per bushel.

Vehicle fuel

With demand growing for vehicle fuels in the U.S., the American Automobile Association reported the average price of a gallon of regular this morning was $2.48, up 5 cents from last week and 20 cents from just one month earlier.

That was the story also, though not as dramatically, for higher grades of gas, including mid-grade ($2.77) and premium ($3.03) today. For all three grades, the U.S. averages are now just 5 cents short of last year's averages at this time. 

For diesel fuel and E85, however, this year's prices have already surpassed those of the previous year at this time, with the average price of diesel now running about $3.01 nationally (compared to $2.94 last year) and E85 coming in this morning at $2.20 a gallon, six cents higher than last year's average at this time of $2.14. 

Natural gas

For the seven-day period that ended March 6, natural gas prices rose in the U.S. amid unseasonably cold temperatures, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Henry Hub spot prices rose 9 cents, from $2.85/MMBtu last to $2.94/MMBtu over that period. Henry Hub prices hit a high of $4.12/MMBtu on March 4, as below-freezing temperatures affected parts of Texas and Louisiana. 

At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of the April 2019 contract increased 4 cents, from $2.799/MMBtu last to $2.841/MMBtu. The price of the 12-month strip, averaging April 2019 through March 2020, futures contracts climbed 4 cents/MMBtu to $2.976/MMBtu.

Net withdrawals from working gas totaled 149 billion cubic feet for the week ending March 1. Working natural gas stocks are 1,390 Bcf, which is 15 percent lower than the year-ago level and 25 percent lower than the five-year (2014-18) average for this week.

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, fell by 19 cents/MMBtu, averaging $6.59/MMBtu for the seven days that ended on March 6. The price of ethane, propane, butane, and isobutane fell by 2, 4. 5 and 5 percent, respectively. The price of natural gasoline remained flat week over week.

According to Baker Hughes, for the seven days ending on Feb. 26, the natural gas rig count increased by one to 195. The number of oil-directed rigs fell by 10 to 843. The total rig count decreased by nine, and it now stands at 1,038.

Pizza company stocks

Domino's has been having a tough time of it on the stock market for several weeks and continued to stay in the doldrums with investors last week on the New York Stock Exchange, where the company lost another 21 cents in value over the week's trading. As such, it was the only brand monitored here weekly to have reported a loss last week. 

Meanwhile, also on the NYSE, Yum Brands gained value last week, growing from $95.37 on March 1 to $96.67 this past Friday. The brand joins Papa John's and Papa Murphy's who also stayed in the black column during last week's trading, albeit on the Nasdaq, in the case of those two chains. 

Papa John's gained $1.39 in value during trading last week to end Friday at $44.71 on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, the carry out and cook it at home brand, Papa Murphy's also gained value last week, growing 8 cents over the course of the five days of trading to close Friday at $5.77. 

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.