Article

Commodities: Cheese prices finally beginning to fall

Cheese prices are finally falling, but the price of wheat is taking up the slack in this week's commodity report of pizza restaurateurs.

August 15, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

That dismal upward climb that the price of cheese has been taking since this past spring may be coming to an end with the price for the commodity dropping steadily since the first of August. But just so pizza restaurateurs don't get too giddy, the price of wheat appears to be rising steadily this month. 
On the fuel front, gasoline prices are flattening out after weeks of decline, while natural gas prices continue to fall. Pizza company stocks are mostly rosy, aside from Papa John's, which fell over the week. 

Cheese 
After steadily rising prices since mid-May, the cost of cheese finally appears to be falling this month. Friday's price was $1.78 — that's 4 cents lower than the previous Friday's close. The price of this commodity has been rising since mid-May when it bottomed out in the $1.27-range. Cheese prices topped out around $1.82 a week ago and have been falling since then. 

Wheat
Wheat, on the other hand, appears to be starting to rise in price, closing last week at $5.04 — up $0.09 from the previous week's close of $4.95. That price was, in turn, 7 cents higher per bushel than the week before. 

Gasoline and diesel fuel
Gas prices remain flat for the most part after a steady decline throughout much of the summer. The price of a gallon of regular unleaded gas today is about $2.12 on average nationwide, unchanged from last week's average, but down a dime from a month ago and well below last year's price of $2.67 a gallon. 

For mid-grade, the price was also unchanged from a week ago at $2.40 a gallon, down 9 cents from last month and 51 cents  from last year.  
Premium fuel was also flat from a week ago at $2.64 this morning. A year ago, premium was priced at $3.10. Diesel fuel actually dropped a penny to $2.29 over the week, which was down 6 cents from a month ago and $0.36 from last year's price. 

Natural gas
U.S. natural gas net imports from Canada rose to about 7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) yesterday, and are estimated to climb to 7.8 Bcf/d today, according to data from PointLogic, as hot weather spans much of the United States. These relatively high levels of imports from Canada follow a near-record summertime level reached near the end of July, when U.S. natural gas net imports from Canada exceeded 8 Bcf/d. The five-year (2011-15) average for U.S. natural gas net imports from Canada, over the June through Aug. 10 period, is 6.8 Bcf/d. Usually, imports from Canada are highest during the winter heating season, peaking in January at around 9.5 Bcf/d.

Natural gas spot prices fell at most locations outside of the Northeast this report week (Aug. 3 through Aug. 10). The Henry Hub spot price fell from $2.88 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday to $2.73/MMBtu yesterday. At the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), the September 2016 contract fell 28 cents from $2.839/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.561/MMBtu yesterday.

Net injections to working gas totaled 29 Bcf for the week ending Aug. 5. Working gas stocks are 3,317 Bcf, which is 12 percent greater than the year-ago level and 15 percent greater than the five-year (2011-15) average for this week. According to Baker Hughes, for the week ending Friday, Aug. 5, the natural gas rig count decreased by 5 to 81. This is the lowest natural gas rig count in the Baker Hughes dataset, which goes back to 1987. The number of oil-directed rigs rose by seven to 381. The total rig count climbed by one and now stands at 464.

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, fell by 14 cents, closing at $4.56/MMBtu for the week ending Aug. 5. The price of ethane and propane fell by 9 percent and 5 percent, respectively, while the price of natural gasoline and isobutane each rose by 2 percent; and the price of butane remained flat week over week.

Pizza company stocks 
Domino's was up on the week to $146.13 from $146 the previous week, as was Pizza Hut parent, Yum! Brands Inc. which closed the week at $89.96, after a brief dip last week to $88.74. 

Papa John's closed down from $75.51 a week ago to $74.66 last Friday. The reverse was true for Papa Murphy's which closed the week at $6.03, up from $5.34 a week earlier. 

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.