LME zinc opened at $2850/mt last evening, and hit a high of $2897/mt before falling back to a low of $2711/mt, and closed at $2775/mt, a decrease of $27/mt or 0.98%. The trading volume decreased to 19907 lots, and open interest grew 1576 lots to 254,000 lots. LME inventory remained the same as the previous day. U.S. retail sales increased by 0.7% month-on-month in March, far exceeding the expected 0.4%, hitting a new high since September last year. The previous value was revised up significantly from 0.6% to 0.9%. The market's expectation for the Fed's interest rate cut has been further postponed, and the macro sentiment has exerted bearish pressure on LME zinc.
The most active SHFE 2406 zinc contract fell to a low of 22270 yuan/mt after opening at 22755 yuan/mt, and finally closed at 22545 yuan/mt, down 495 yuan/mt or 2.15%. Trading volume was down to 182,000 lots, and open interest fell by 3222 lots to 126,000 lots.
