The GDT price rose 2.4% in the last auction of 2014, with the price of key product whole milk powder rising 1.4%.
Looking at the broader suite of products, prices were a mixed bag, with four rises against three falls.
ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley yesterday said a fall in whole milk powder and overall auction volumes at the last auction compared to the previous one might have explained some of the 2.4% overall price rise.
Fonterra continued to rein in auction volumes, despite healthy production to date this season.
Fonterra also revised down its milk production growth forecast in December for this season compared to last - from 2% to 0%.
Fonterra cited the low milk price as likely to induce a lower supply response from farmers over the remainder of the season, he said.
''For now though, markets are aware production growth to date this season is up a healthy 4% for Fonterra. In that sense, markets will take more convincing the ample supply growth is indeed slowing before they start bidding up prices in earnest,'' Mr Tuffley said.
ASB did not provide a forecast for the GDT auction.
On Friday, the November building consents will be released by Statistics New Zealand.
Dwelling consents lifted in October, reversing some of the weakness seen in the previous month.
''We have seen a number of softer months with nationwide dwelling consent issuances starting to decline. In Auckland and Christchurch, dwelling consents - excluding apartments - were starting to trend sideways.''
The October bounce was encouraging, although it did not yet return the level of dwelling consents to those seen in May and June this year, Mr Tuffley said.
Heading into September, election uncertainty might have contributed to the weakness in building demand and consent applications.
The expectation was the current softness in consent issuance was a temporary pause and consents issued would continue to increase, he said.
Overseas, investors will scrutinise the minutes from the United States Federal Reserve December policy meeting, at which it promised patience in raising interest rates, as well as the latest US jobs data.
Eyes will also be on the latest US jobs data with payroll company ADP's employment report set for release tomorrow, followed by weekly jobless claims on Thursday, and the Government's job data on Friday.
''The Fed understands that the economy is somewhat tenuous, and they're going to err on the side of being less restrictive for probably a longer period,'' Malcolm Polley, president and chief investment officer at Stewart Capital Advisors in Indiana, Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg News.
''Expectations have been raised by some pretty decent jobs numbers in November and December, and now investors want to see some follow through and strong economic prints going into 2015.''
Other US data released in the coming days included motor vehicle sales, due today; PMI services index, ISM non-manufacturing index, and factory orders, due tomorrow; international trade, due Thursday; and wholesale trade, due on Friday.
Last week, the euro weakened after comments made by European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi in an interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt which suggested the odds the central bank would soon start quantitative easing had risen.
''The risk that we don't fulfil our mandate of price stability is higher than it was six months ago.
''We are in technical preparations to alter the size, speed and composition of our measures at the beginning of 2015, should this become necessary, to react to a too-long period of low inflation. There's unanimity in the ECB council on that,'' Mr Draghi said.
Meanwhile, the German Government believed a Greek exit from the euro zone would be ''manageable'' if needed, Der Spiegel news magazine reported on Saturday, citing unnamed Government sources.
Both Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble believed the euro zone could cope with Greece leaving, Der Spiegel reported. Greece faces snap elections this month.
