Food & Beverage

Election week bears fruit for pizza brands

Domino's took a sizeable leap forward in value over the last week, while other major pizza players gained value, too, before markets closed when the winner of the White House was still undeclared. Now that President-elect Joe Biden has been proclaimed the victor, all eyes will be on what Wall Street does next.

Photo: iStock

November 9, 2020

When trading closed Friday on Wall Street, the question of who would become president was still up in the air, but even then, major pizza brands mostly traded up on the week, while many pizza commodities were trending lower.

On the stock market, Domino's Pizza Inc. took a sizeable hop up in value, adding $21.53 over the course of the trading week to close Friday at $399.85. Competitor, Papa John's also managed to grow its value, adding $6.92 over the five days of buying and selling.

At multi-QSR and Pizza Hut parent, Yum Brands, investors also lifted the company's worth from $93.33 at the close of the previous week, to $99.38 at the closing bell.

Lastly, Dallas-based Pie Five and Pizza Inn parent company, Rave Restaurant Group, took a slight dip last week in value, closing Friday at just under 68 cents, down about 4 cents from the previous week's close.

Cheese

On the Chicago Mercantile exchange, cheese barrels closed at just under $2.32, while 40-pound block ended at $2.34 Friday. But weekly averages for both cheese units were lower, with barrels down nearly 1 cent to $2.47 on average, while blocks dropped nearly 18 cents to just under $2.60 on average.

The second big runup of the year on cheese block market prices thus began to show signs of ending this week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with prices falling nearly 30 cents from Monday to Thursday, essentially coming down to meet barrel prices at just under $2.50.

Cheese producers reported plentiful milk, both in-house and spot offerings, but their production rates have begun to subside in order to limit potential inventory excesses. Another hurdle cheese-makers reported to the U.S.D.A. were COVID-19-related staffing shortages.

Wheat

Wheat prices fell slightly last week overall, with December Kansas City hard red winter wheat futures dropping 8 cents on the week to $5.55, while December Chicago soft red winter futures fell more than 7 cents to nearly $6.02, the U.S.D.A. said.

Chicago Board of Trade soft red winter futures grew 3 cents over the trading week to $6.02 a bushel, while Minneapolis Grain Exchange hard red spring futures added 5 cents to close at $5.57 a bushel.

Auto fuel

Last week at the pump, U.S. average pump prices average about 3 cents less than a week earlier at $2.11, 7 cents less than last month and a hefty 50 cents lower than last year at this time, according to the American Automobile Association.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that gas demand fell from 8.55 million barrels a day (b/d) to 8.34 million b/d. Low demand, as total domestic stocks increased by 1.5 million bbl to 227.7 million bbl last week, has pushed pump prices down, a trend which AAA expects to continue.

Last week, the biggest decreases in gas prices among the states were in Kentucky (-7 cents), as well as in Washington, D.C., Delaware and Michigan, which were all down 6 cents on the week.

This morning the average price for a gallon of regular remained at $2.11, while mid-grade was at $2.47 (-1 cent) and premium came in at $2.73 (-2 cents). Diesel and E85 both remained flat week-to-week, at $2.36 and $1.94, respectively.

Natural gas

Natural gas spot prices fell at most locations for the seven days that ended on Nov. 4, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Henry Hub spot price fell from $3.06 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) to $2.60/MMBtu over the same period.

At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the November 2020 contract expired at $2.996/MMBtu on Nov. 4. The December 2020 contract price decreased to $3.05/MMBtu, down 25 cents/MMBtu over the seven days. The price of the 12-month strip, averaging December 2020 through November 2021 futures contracts, declined 11 cents/MMBtu to $3/MMBtu.

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, rose by 1 cent/MMBtu, averaging $5.18/MMBtu for the period. The prices of natural gasoline and ethane fell by 4% and 1%, respectively. The prices of propane, butane, and isobutane rose by 1%, 5% and 2%, respectively.