MILK
November, December, and January Class III contracts are above $21.00 again. They have recently been here a few times but have fallen back each time. The strength of cheese prices this week would suggest the market might finally trend higher for a period of time. Next week's trade will be critical for price support. It is not that recent demand increased substantially or that supply tightened significantly. It is just that buyers needed to be more aggressive with their purchases this week. An increase in orders may have surfaced prompting buyers to increase ownership of supply. Holiday buying should be increasing even though the holidays seem quite a way off. However, moving production into the desired channels and packaging for various holiday products takes time. Milk supply continues to be sufficient for demand. The strength of milk futures this week with prices holding into the weekend may indicate traders are becoming more friendly to a longer trend higher. However, we are not out of the woods yet.
AVERAGE CLASS III PRICES
| 3 Month: | $20.76 |
| 6 Month: | $21.03 |
| 9 Month: | $20.95 |
| 12 Month: | $20.84 |
CHEESE
Cheese prices posted a strong week. Blocks increased 15.25 cents with just three loads traded. Barrels increased 7.25 cents with three loads traded. Dry whey declined 0.75 cents with nine loads traded. This is the strongest weekly increase of cheese prices for quite some time. Buyers seem to be increasing purchases which may have exhausted some of the availability of cheese from certain outlets. This may have caused buyers to become a little more aggressive on the spot market.
BUTTER
Price moved to a new record high today with a gain of 2.25 cents, moving price to $3.17 with good volume. Buyers held back yesterday in hopes sellers would offer more to the market due to higher price. However, buyers could not hold back another day seeing that sellers were holding for higher prices. They had to step up and resume buying even though price is at record highs, For the week, butter increased 7 cents with 17 loads traded. Grade A nonfat dry milk gained 5.50 cents with 34 loads traded.
OUTSIDE MARKETS SUMMARY
September corn jumped 24 cents closing at $6.9850. September soybeans gained 18,75 cents closing at $14.8925 with September soybean meal up $13.10 per ton closing at $440.90. September wheat jumped 42.75 cents closing at $8.53. October live cattle gained $1.30 ending at $145.67. October crude oil gained $3.25 ending at $86.79. The DOW increased 377 points closing at 32,152 while the NASDAQ gained 250 points ending at 12,112.
