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Commodities: Cheese, wheat prices down, pizza stocks up

For pizza restaurateurs, it was largely a good week, with cheese prices continuing their descent, along with lower wheat prices and mostly improved pizza stock prices.Gas was down for the week and year, but up slightly from a month ago. Natural gas, however, did climb slightly, partly as a result of rig shut-ins due to Tropical Storm Hermine.

September 6, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

For pizza restaurateurs, it was largely a fairly good week last week, with cheese prices continuing their descent, along with lower wheat prices and mostly improved pizza stock prices. Gas was mostly down for the week and year but up slightly from a month ago at the pump. Natural gas, however, did climb slightly, partly as a result of rig shut-ins due to Tropical Storm Hermine. 

Cheese: 

According to National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, cheese continued to free-fall over last week, down 6 cents from the previous Friday's close when the average cheese price was around $1.74. By last Friday, that price had dropped to an average of around $1.68, according to the NASS.

Cheese output was 1.02 billion pounds, 1.4 percent above July 2015 and 2.6 percent above June 2016. Italian-type cheese production totaled 444 million pounds, 3.2 percent above July 2015 and 2.3 percent above June 2016. American-type cheese production totaled 398 million pounds, 0.2 percent above July 2015 and 2.2 percent above June 2016. 

Wheat: 
Producers received lower prices for wheat, but there was increasing monthly movement of this commodity across the nation's grain markets. According to the Agricultural Marketing Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prices paid for wheat in Buffalo were steady at $90, while in Kansas City prices were steady to $3 lower at $50 to $60. Minneapolis prices were also steady at $60 to $75, while St. Louis was $5 to $8 lower at $62 to $75. 

Gasoline and diesel fuel:
Auto fuel continued to fall slightly over the week in all categories, to an average of $2.19 a gallon this morning for regular, from $2.21 a week ago, but up from $2.12 a month ago and still substantially lower than last year when the average price per gallon was $2.40. All other grades, including diesel, reflected the same story as the nation wrapped up the summer travel season.

Mid-grade gas was down nearly a quarter a gallon from the same time last year to $2.46 this Tuesday morning, down from last year's average at $2.70. That price was also slightly lower than last week, but about 6 cents higher than last month, which was the same for premium gas. Diesel gas this morning was running $2.36 a gallon, down from $2.37 a week ago, but up from $2.30 last month, yet like other grades, down substantially from last year at this time when we were paying $2.56 for a gallon of diesel at the pump. 

Natural gas 
For the week ending Aug. 31, natural gas spot prices rose at most locations outside the Northeast on the week. The Henry Hub spot price rose from $2.77 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) last Wednesday to $2.94/MMBtu yesterday. At the New York Mercantile Exchange, the September 2016 contract rose 6 cents, from $2.796/MMBtu last Wednesday to settle at $2.853 on Monday. The October 2016 contract moved into front-month position this week, rising 5 cents from $2.835/MMBtu last Wednesday to $2.887 yesterday.

Net injections to working gas totaled 51 Bcf for the week ending Aug. 26. Working gas stocks are 3,401 Bcf, which is 8 percent greater than the year-ago level and 11 percent greater than the five-year (2011-15) average for this week.

The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, rose by 12 cents, closing at $4.92/MMBtu for the week ending Aug. 26. The price of ethane rose by 7 percent while, the prices of propane and butane both rose by 3 percent and the prices of natural gasoline and isobutane were both flat.

Even though temperatures moderated this week and consumption was lower, prices may be receiving upward pressure from production shut-ins in the Gulf of Mexico related to Tropical Storm Hermine. Several offshore platforms were shut-in in anticipation of the storm earlier this week. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement reports that 360 MMcf/d of natural gas production was shut-in as of yesterday, which accounts for 11 percent of Gulf of Mexico natural gas production.

Pizza company stocks
Pizza stocks watched by pizzamarketplace.com were mostly in the green for the last week, except for Papa Murphy's, which dropped slightly.

Pizza mega-chain, Domino's closed at $151 Friday, up slightly from the previous week's $150. Meanwhile, Pizza Hut parent, Yum! Brands –— which announced its Yum China division's purchase last Friday — saw it's stock rise on the week from $90.13 the previous Friday to $91.26 on Sept. 2 at the close of the markets. Louisville-based Papa John's also had a slight uptick on the week to close at $75.75 from $74.83 a week earlier. 

IPapa Murphy's was the only stock watched by this site that dropped over last week to $5.80 at Friday's close, from $5.84 the previous week's close. 

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.