BUTTER HIGHLIGHTS: The trade is assessing the butter market after sharp price declines over the past two weeks. Some last minute buyers are filling remaining orders. Most of ice cream, egg nog, sour cream and cream cheese processing for the holidays is completed. As a result, cream supplies to make butter are more available. Butter churning is active in the West and Central regions, but is steady to lower in the East. In the Central region, some production lines will be down for maintenance projects. In the West, some manufacturers are shifting production from print to bulk. At this point, major parts of the national butter output are destined to frozen storage. Inventories are steady to building. Butter demand from retailers is light but steady from food service. The market undertone is weak. The Grade AA butter price at the CME Group on Friday closed at $2.0600, down 14 cents from a week ago.