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Commodities: National Pizza Week starts off on high note for most brands

It's National Pizza Week! But even better than that, it's National Pizza Week with lower prices on most of the essentials pizza brands use in-restaurant daily to make and deliver those beloved pies to the masses.

January 14, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

In case you weren't aware, we've officially begun National Pizza Week here in the U.S. and for most brands monitored by this site, it's starting off pretty nicely after the price of most pizza-making essentials dropped last week, while stock in most brands rose. The lone loser in brand trading last week was Pizza Hut parent, Yum Brands, which lost some of its glow in investors' eyes over the second week of trading in the New Year. 

Cheese

Barrels closed Friday at $1.25, while 40-pound blocks ended the week at $1.41, according to the U.S.D.A. Agricultural Marketing Service. The weekly average for barrels was $1.26 (down almost 4 cents) while blocks averaged $1.39 (down 3 cents). 

Post-holiday milk availability has kept cheese production swift in all regions nationally, while spot milk prices increased from the previous week: $2 under to $1 over Class III.

Nationally, cheese inventories are heavy. However, some individual cheese plants in the Midwest and Western regions report respective inventories are tight to balanced. Mozzarella demand is strong ahead of the Super Bowl, while other types of cheese producers reported steady to good demand, as well. 

That said, some expect this is a short-term upsurge as schools replenish their depleted stores following the holidays. Cheese markets — particularly barrel markets — are struggling to regain some of the steam lost in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Wheat

Compared to the previous week, cash bids for wheat were mostly lower last week. The U.S.D.A. Agricultural Marketing Service reports that markets may have been pressured by a lack of fresh news and some sell-off in the grain market, last week. Export sales and shipment numbers remain uncertain as the government shutdown rolls into its 20th day.  

Wheat was 4 3/4 cents lower to 28 3/4 cents higher, with Kansas City U.S. No. 1 Hard Red Winter, ordinary protein rail bid at 4 3/4 cents lower, from $6.08 3/4-$6.23 3/4 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 steady to 1 cent lower, from $5.42-$5.48 per bushel.  Minneapolis and Duluth U.S. No. 1 Dark Northern Spring, 14.0 to 14.5 percent protein rail, was 8 3/4 to 28 3/4 cents higher, from $6.69-$6.94 per bushel. Portland U.S. Soft White wheat rail was steady from $6.15-$6.35 per bushel.

Vehicle fuel

Demand for gas in the U.S., remained low last week, though prices were a bit higher week over week, ending a multi-week price slide that made motorists and pizza delivery brands happy. The average price paid for a gallon of regular today was $2.25, about a cent higher than a week ago, but still 14 cents lower than last month and a healthy 28 cents lower than the price we were paying last year at this time. 

That was also basically the same story for higher grades of gasoline, though diesel fuel continued to drop about 3 cents from the previous week's price to settle in at $2.93 today. And of all the vehicle fuels tracked by this website, E85 showed the biggest rise over last week, up 3 cents over the week-ago price to end up at an average price of $2 this morning. 

Natural gas

Natural gas spot prices rose at most locations for the reporting week that ended on Wednesday, Jan. 9, according to  the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Henry Hub spot prices rose from $2.79 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) to $2.91/MMBtu over those same seven days.

At the Nymex, the price of the February 2019 contract increased 3 cents, from $2.958/MMBtu to $2.984/MMBtu during that period. The price of the 12-month strip, averaging February 2019 through January 2020 futures contracts, climbed 10 cents/MMBtu to $2.844/MMBtu.

Net withdrawals from working gas totaled 91 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the seven days that ended Jan. 4. Working natural gas stocks are 2,614 Bcf, which is 7 percent lower than the year-ago level and 15 percent lower than the five-year (2014-18) average for this week.

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, rose by 11 cents/MMBtu, averaging $6.21/MMBtu for the seven days ending Jan. 9. The price of propane fell by 1 percent, while the price of natural gasoline, butane, isobutane, and ethane rose by 10, 3, 2 and 1 percent respectively.

According to Baker Hughes, for the seven days that end Jan. 1, the natural gas rig count remained flat at 198. The number of oil-directed rigs fell by eight to 877. The total rig count decreased by eight, and it now stands at 1,075.

Pizza company stocks

Pizza Hut parent, Yum Brands was the lone loser over last week's trading of the four brands watched weekly by this site. On Friday, Yum closed out the week at $90.94, that down 52 cents from the previous week's close. 

But for the other three pizza-making brands watched by this site, it was a profitable week overall, beginning with Domino's on the New York Stock Exchange, which gained $5.39 over the five days of trading to end Friday afternoon at $249.99. 

Over on the Nasdaq, the long-troubled Papa John's brand also gained last week, rising from $41.74 on Jan. 4 to $42.56 Friday. Also on the Nasdaq, Papa Murphy's brand closed Friday at $5.11, up 6 cents from the previous week's close.  

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.