SMM Morning Review - 2012/4/25 Nickel Market

SHANGHAI, Apr. 25 (SMM) -- LME nickel prices overnight opened at USD 17,600/mt, with the high end USD 17,780/mt, finding support at USD 17,388/mt. Finally, LME nickel prices closed at USD 17,490/mt, down USD 80/mt. Trading volumes increased by 88 lots to 2,531 lots, and total position was 105,526 lots, up 714 lots. LME nickel inventories were 99,798 mt, up 168 mt.

LME nickel prices edged up during the day from the 5-day moving average and once touched USD 17,800/mt. But  due to worse-than-forecast US new home sales, LME nickel prices plummeted and finally closed at USD 17,490/mt, down USD 80/mt.

US Commerce Department announced that US new home sales in March were 328,000 units, better than the forecast of 318,000 units. The market was also stimulated as the figure for February was revised to 353,000 units. European equity markets plunged as Dutch cabinet will step down, but Holland successfully issued EUR 2 billion of government bonds April 24th, causing metal prices to rebound. Besides, investors are focusing the monetary policy meeting by the US Federal Reserve, but they expect no further stimulus policies in the near term, so the US dollar index will unlikely drop sharply.

Due to positive results of Dutch and Italian government bond sales, the euro rose against the US dollar index. As a result, LME nickel prices opened higher today, but should move between USD 17,300-17,900/mt due to positive factors, with spot prices between RMB 128,000-131,000/mt.