The Shanghai Futures Exchange was closed during the Labour Day holiday, while the LME nickel market operated normally. The overall LME nickel prices remained relatively resilient last week, falling below $19,000/ton during the holiday, but closing at $19,240/ton on May 3. No new progress in the RKAB approval and the positive non-ferrous macro environment contributed to stable nickel prices. During the holiday, the United States announced the latest round of interest rate decisions, which remained unchanged in line with market expectations. However, market expectations of future interest rate cuts have been gradually postponed under the pressure of US inflation data, from March at the beginning to June and September. Some even expect that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates this year. The frequent changes in expectations of interest rate cuts will cause stronger price fluctuations.

To sum up, under the influence of macro environment and fundamentals, it is expected that the overall SHFE nickel prices will remain strong at more than 140,000 yuan/ton after the holiday.