Food & Beverage

Domino's conquers Wall Street

Domino's had another powerhouse week in pizza brand trading, while the prices of pizza commodities were a mixed bag.

Photo: File/provided

September 14, 2020

Both commodities and pizza brand trading prices last week ran the gamut with a mixture of gains and losers. Pizza powerhouse, Domino's clearly won the run on Wall Street, however, closing up $12.87 on the week to end Friday at $394.68. Louisville, Kentucky-based, Papa John's also had a decent run on the Nasdaq, ending Friday up 94 cents at $91.37.

Pizza Hut parent company, Yum Brands, did not fare as well in trading last week on the New York Stock Exchange, where it ended Friday down $2.95 to close at $92.27. On the Nasdaq, Pizza Inn and Pie Five parent, Rave Restaurant Group also edged down about a penny last week to close Friday at 44 cents.

Cheese

On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, cheese barrels closed Friday at $1.60, while 40-pound blocks closed at $2.17. The weekly average for barrels was up a cent to $1.65, while the average for blocks was up 2 cents to $2.16, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Cheese production, particularly in the Midwest and West, has been very busy. Plentiful milk in both those regions, along with reinvigorated market tones, has customers and cheese-makers busy.

Frozen and pizza restaurant cheese sales are keeping mozzarella and other Italian style cheese producers occupied. Cheese market tones have strengthened in recent weeks, but as of last Thursday, an atypically large block to barrel price gap on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has developed, which U.S.D.A. sources indicate may be a sign of unhealthy market tones.

Wheat

Wheat prices trended slightly lower, with December Chicago soft red winter futures down nearly 6 cents to nearly $5.43 a bushel and December Kansas City hard red winter futures off 2 cents at $4.72. In Minneapolis, spring wheat futures fell nearly a nickel to $5.31, according to the U.S.D.A. and December MGEX spring wheat futures lost 4.5 cents to $5.31.

Global wheat production could reach record levels, according to the U.S.D.A., while the department expects supply and demand to remain steady for the commodity. The influx of wheat available is being attributed to bigger supplies in Canada and Australia, which are counteracting shorter supplies in Argentina.

In Kansas City, truck bids for hard red winter (ord. protein) ranged from $4.31 to $4.41, which is down nearly 2 cents per bushel. Soft red winter wheat ranged from nearly $4.96 to almost $5.11 per bushel, which is down nearly 6 cents from the previous week.

Auto fuel

The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline last week dropped 3 cents to an average of $2.20, which is up 3 cents from last month, but still 36 cents lower than last year at this time, according to the American Automobile Association. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said demand for gas has fallen again, from 8.79 million barrels a day to 8.39 million b/d, which has helped pump prices to decline. Low demand will likely help pump prices to continue their descent as summer fades to fall, AAA said in its weekly evaluation.

Since last Thursday, Ohio has been the one state with the biggest decreases in gas prices, down an average of 11 cents a gallon this week. Neighboring state, Indiana was next, down 9 cents a gallon, following Kentucky and Michigan, which were each down 6 cents on the week.

Nationally, this morning the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas was at $2.19, down three cents for the week. At $2.54 a gallon this morning, mid-grade fuel was down 2 cents, as was premium, at $2.81, AAA said.

Diesel and E85 were also down, though their prices did not fluctuate as much. Diesel ($2.41) and E85 ($1.97) were each down a penny a gallon on the week.

Natural gas

Natural gas spot prices fell at most locations last week, while the Henry Hub spot price remained flat at $2.19 per million British thermal units (MMBtu).

At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the price of the October 2020 contract decreased 8 cents, from $2.49/MMBtu to $2.41/MMBtu, for the seven days that ended Sept. 9, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. The price of the 12-month strip, averaging October 2020 through September 2021 futures contracts, declined 1 cent/MMBtu to $2.96/MMBtu.

The net injections to working gas totaled 70 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ending Sept. 4. Working natural gas stocks totaled 3,525 Bcf, which is 18% more than the year-ago level and 13% more than the five-year (2015–19) average for this week.

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, fell by 37 cents/MMBtu, averaging $4.70/MMBtu for the week ending Sept. 9. The prices of butane, natural gasoline, isobutane, propane, and ethane all fell by 2%, 3%, 5%, 7%, and 13%, respectively.