What else is new in commodity land, a new fresh 3 decade high in sugar. Monday, December 28, 2009 NY Sugar Hits 29-Year High NEW YORK (Reuters) - Raw sugar futures surged to their highest price in almost 29 years on light investment fund buying spurred by tight supplies, analysts said. The benchmark March raw sugar contract <SBH0> jumped to a new lifetime peak at 27.30 cents per lb, its loftiest level since February 1981, and was trading at 27.20 cents at 7:37 a.m. EST (1237 GMT). The market reopened for business at 7:30 a.m. following the Christmas break.
Good question, I was posting news about it was soaring to new highs on a daily basis back in 2008. Anyway, lets get this straight, wheat rallies to unbelievable heights in early 2008, its close to $13-$14 a bushel.... At that time prices of everything containing wheat soar, bagels, pizza, breads, etc, etc... Price of bagels near me jump between 50-100%, Pizza prices go from $1.75-$2.00 to $2.00 to $2.75, nearly every store that sold bagels and pizza were posting articles from the internet and newspapers in their store in FRONT of the register showing why prices of bagels and pizza were skyrocketing. FAST FORWARD to end of 2009, Wheat is about $5-$5.50 a bushel, down over 60% from its highs and to my knowledge not one bagel or pizza business has taken the price of their product down one bit, they were quick to raise them as soon as they saw the surge in wheat prices, but once wheat prices tanked they forgot all about taking the price down to where it was before wheat prices surged. I guarantee you that if wheat prices went back to $13 a bushel they would raise prices again. So what the point of my situation is that wheat prices higher, products containing wheat move higher, wheat falls, prices of products stay the same. No need to mention wheat prices are down over 60% from 18 months ago when bread is still $3.50-$4.00 and pizza is still $2.75 a slice. As for sugar, if it keeps going the way its going a 2 liter bottle of coke at the supermarket price is going to be close to $2.00.
No. Soda pop gets its sweetness from corn syrup, not sugar. Besides, Pepsi can always undercut KO on price.
Here are long term charts of back-adjusted front-month future prices (not spot, which I don't have available unfortunately) of sugar and wheat. Still it puts the horrific "multi-decade high" of sugar into perspective: