Market News

Bad week for butter

At the close of trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Friday, cash cheese barrels declined 2 cents, blocks increased 3.75 cents and butter dropped another 13 cents.  Class III futures were slightly lower.

For the week: cash cheese barrels declined 3 cents, blocks increased 9 cents, butter dropped 80.5 cents and nonfat dry milk held steady.  Class III futures October down 18 cents, November fell 31 cents, December lost 67 cents and April slipped 12 cents from last Friday.

 

Curtis Bosma is an account manager with HighGround Dairy, he says while everyone knew $3 butter was not sustainable, they were surprised by how quickly it fell.  He says there was a lack of buyers, “Some of it might be that the holiday buying has already been taken care of.”

Cash cheese has been jumping all-over the place and we ended up with a 21-cent spread between blocks and barrels.  “That will have to tighten-up over time.”

The other big news of the week was the first increase in months in the overall price on the Global Dairy Trade auction.  Bosma says the increase was less-than-impressive and they still see the market at bearish.

Bosma talks about the market: