[SMM Stainless Steel Daily Review] SS futures resumed a downward trend, spot stainless steel prices were weak and trading was sluggish.
[SMM Stainless Steel Daily Review] SS Futures Return to Downtrend, Spot Stainless Steel Prices Weak with Sluggish Transactions
According to SMM on July 8, SS futures overall fell and pulled back. Affected by capital operations, SS futures ended the previous rally and returned to a weakening trend. At the close, the most-traded SS contract settled at 14,450 yuan/mt. In the spot market, dragged by the pullback in SS futures, spot stainless steel quotes fell in tandem. The "rush to buy amid continuous price rise and hold back amid price downturn" mentality, combined with the ongoing consumption off-season, made it hard to reverse the sluggish trading pattern.
For the most-traded SS futures contract, at 10:15 AM, SS2608 was quoted at 14,490 yuan/mt, down 300 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. Spot premiums for 304/2B in Wuxi were in the 530-980 yuan/mt range. In the spot market, the average price of Wuxi cold-rolled 201/2B coil rose 50 yuan/mt; for cold-rolled mill-edge 304/2B coil, the average price in Wuxi fell 25 yuan/mt, while in Foshan it rose 50 yuan/mt; the price of cold-rolled 316L/2B coil in Wuxi remained flat; hot-rolled 316L/NO.1 coil in Wuxi was quoted unchanged; cold-rolled 430/2B coil prices in both Wuxi and Foshan stayed flat.
This week, the game between macro and industry logic dominated the futures trend. US inflation data pulled back, expectations for US Fed interest rate hikes cooled further, and the US dollar index weakened, which overall boosted valuations of commodities and nonferrous metals and provided macro support for the metals sector. However, sentiment on the industry side remained bearish. The issue of Indonesia's nickel ore supplementary quota remained unresolved, and the market had strong concerns about an easing supply of nickel resources going forward, ...