CME markets were quiet ahead of USDA’s Cold Storage report. The biggest movement was in cheese, with spot blocks down a penny to $1.9300 per pound and barrels settling at $1.9700 per pound, down a half cent. One lot of each changed hands. NDM eased off yesterday’s five-month highs, giving up a half cent to close at $1.2300 per pound.
USDA’s June Cold Storage report was neutral for butter but bullish for cheese. Butter stocks totaled 374 million pounds, close to expectations and down 6 million pounds on the month. On the cheese side, total cheese inventories reached 1.423 billion pounds, below predictions and down 11 million pounds versus May, close to the five-year-average decline of 12 million pounds.
The story of tight milk continued in this week’s USDA spot milk report. Prices in the Upper Midwest climbed to a midpoint of $0.75 per hundredweight over class, the highest for this time of year since 2014. The price was also up from +$0.25 last week, -$3.50 in 2023 and -$2.25 on the five-year average.
