SMM Morning Review - 2010/3/2 Nickel Market

SHANGHAI, Mar. 2 (SMM) -- LME nickel prices closed at USD 21,470/mt, up USD 314/mt, with prices firstly rallying but later declining. Positions were 97,767, and overall trading volumes were relatively moderate.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose by 78.53 points to 10,403.79 points, up 0.76%. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose by 11.22 points to 1,115.71 points, up 1.02%. Accumulative stock index from January 1st 2010 till now has grown for the first time since January 22nd. The Nasdaq composite index rose by 35.31 points to 2,273.57 points, up 1.58%. The US Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) in February rose to 62.6, the highest level since April 2005, and the figure has exceeded 50 for five consecutive months. It shows that manufacture and the overall economy in the US are improving.  Global bright economy prospects remain positive, which will attract investors to enter the commodity markets and will increase demand of commodities, creating favorable conditions for non-ferrous prices which is on the rebound track.

However, lingering debt issue in the EU still weighs on market. The leader hedge found, George Soros, continued to believe bearish performance of euro, which will give strong support to US dollar. Rogers, the renowned international investor, boldly predicted that global economy is still not optimistic, and the UK pond may collapse in the coming weeks. From the above analysis, it can be seen that the prospect of euro is still not optimistic before release of any substantial relief measures for debt issues in Greece, which will weigh on demand in non-ferrous metal market. LME nickel inventories rose by 558 mt to 163,224 mt, which has been grown for three consecutive days.

It is expected that nickel prices will fluctuate around USD 21,500/mt in the near term.

To contact the writer on this report: seasonwei@smm.cn

 
Copyright © SMM. All Rights Reserved

None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use in any forms or means, without the prior written consent of SMM. For reproduction issue, please contact us by email: service.en@smm.cn