SMM Morning Comment: Macroeconomic sentiment is improving, LME Zinc continues its upward trend

Overnight, Fed Chairman Bostic reiterated that he expects one rate cut this year; EIA significantly lowered its forecast for global crude oil demand growth this year; Iranian proxies are said to be launching attacks on Israel in the coming days; the Bank of Japan is reportedly considering raising its inflation forecast this month; the total asset management scale of global gold ETFs increased significantly in March; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and six other departments: promote the in-depth application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence in the manufacturing process; a number of securities firms lowered the annual interest rate on customer margin demand deposits to 0.2%; China's new energy vehicle sales in March increased by 29.5% year-on-year; Guangzhou stopped approving new residential projects such as apartments.

LME zinc opened at US$2,674/ton and during European trading hours reached a low of US$2,636/ton. Then it bottomed out and rebounded quickly, reaching a high of US$2,727/ton. The contract closed up at US$2,711/ton, up US$43/ton, or 1.61%. LME zinc inventory decreased by 200 mt or 0.08% to 259925 mt, supporting LME zinc prices.

The most-traded SHFE 2405 zinc contract opened at 22040 yuan/mt overnight and touched a low of 22000 yuan/mt before closing at 22325 yuan/mt, up 485 yuan/mt or 2.22%. Trading volume fell to 76142 lots, and jumped on open interest decreased by 885 lots to 75523 lots.