SHANGHAI, Dec. 11 (CBI China) -- U.S. stocks fell sharply yesterday, so the market's concern about real economy intensified. The crude oil futures rose sharply by 10%, propelled by the heating up of expectation that OPEC will cut production and sharp weakness in dollar. As to basic metals, although the inventory has increased by more than 2,400mt, nickel prices raised significantly, meanwhile the trading volume has rebounded to the record high since the end of last month. At present, from the fundamentals, no news can support such increase, so market was still pessimistic about the medium-term nickel prices. From the trading, this rebound was due to the fund pulling up to wash sales, and took the opportunity of dollar devaluation to wash the short. In the short term, nickel prices are expected to be stable with slight rise, and the trend of U.S. dollar and the changes in copper prices should be focused, for example, if copper prices break through USD 3,300/mt next week, the nickel price will be likely to increase to USD 13,000/mt.
  
Nickel prices are expected to be in the range of USD 10,700 -11,500/mt tonight, the closing price will be around USD 11,100/mt.

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