The US dollar weakened, metals generally rose, with LME nickel, coke, and stainless steel leading the gains. Gold prices repeatedly hit new historical highs. [SMM Midday Review]

SMM April 1 News: In the metal market, as of the midday close, domestic base metals mostly rose. SHFE lead rose 0.14%, SHFE zinc rose 0.32%. SHFE copper fell 0.29%. SHFE nickel fell 1.34%. SHFE aluminum edged up. SHFE tin rose 0.51%. In addition, alumina fell 1.07%. Lithium carbonate rose 0.59%, silicon metal fell 0.25%. The most-traded polysilicon futures rose 0.17%. Ferrous metals mostly rose, iron ore rose 0.77%, rebar fell 0.28%, HRC edged up, stainless steel rose 1%. For coking coal and coke, coking coal rose 0.5%, coke rose 3.37%. In overseas metals, as of 11:45, overseas base metals nearly all rose. LME lead, LME copper and LME aluminum all rose within 0.5%, LME zinc rose 0.53%, LME tin fell 0.16%. LME nickel rose 1.58%. In precious metals, as of 11:45, COMEX gold rose 0.77%, hitting a record high of $3,175.6/oz during the session; COMEX silver rose 0.92%. Domestically, SHFE gold rose 2.02%, hitting a record high of 738.62 yuan/g during the session; SHFE silver fell 0.01%. As of the midday close, the most-traded Europe container shipping futures fell 0.03% to 2,241.6 points. As of 11:45 on April 1, some futures midday quotes: April 1 SMM metal spot prices. Spot and fundamentals. Copper: Today, Guangdong #1 copper cathode spot prices against the front-month contract were at a discount of 20 yuan/mt to a premium of 40 yuan/mt, with an average premium of 10 yuan/mt, flat from the previous trading day; SX-EW copper was at a discount of 90 yuan/mt to 70 yuan/mt, with an average discount of 80 yuan/mt, flat from the previous trading day. The average price of Guangdong #1 copper cathode was 79,900 yuan/mt, down 250 yuan/mt from the previous trading day, and the average price of SX-EW copper was 79,810 yuan/mt, down 250 yuan/mt from the previous trading day. Spot market: Guangdong inventory has increased for 7 consecutive days, with increased arrivals and weak consumption being the main reasons. Click for details. Macro front. Domestically: [National Consumer Goods Trade-in Work Promotion Video Conference Held in Beijing] To summarize the progress of the consumer goods trade-in work in Q1 2025 and deploy the next key tasks, the National Consumer Goods Trade-in Work Promotion Video Conference was held in Beijing on March 28. Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping attended and spoke at the meeting. The meeting emphasized the need to strengthen overall coordination, accelerate work progress, and ensure the implementation of various tasks; enhance digital empowerment, promote the widespread use of smart terminal consumer goods, and trade in new quality productive forces; deepen reform and innovation, work hard and pragmatically, and fully resolve various bottlenecks and obstacles that restrict policy effectiveness; intensify publicity and promotion, create a strong atmosphere, and stimulate consumer enthusiasm; focus on risk prevention, build a solid regulatory defense line, ensure special funds are used for their intended purposes and used effectively, promote greater effectiveness of consumer goods trade-in, and continuously enhance the fundamental role of consumption in economic growth. [Caixin China Manufacturing PMI Rose to 51.2 in March, the Highest in Four Months] The Caixin China Manufacturing PMI released today recorded 51.2, up 0.4 percentage points from February, the highest since December 2024, indicating that manufacturing production and business activities continued to accelerate expansion. [PBOC's Open Market Net Withdrawal of 313 Billion Yuan] The PBOC conducted 64.9 billion yuan of 7-day reverse repo operations today, with the winning bid rate at 1.50%, unchanged from before. As 377.9 billion yuan of 7-day reverse repos matured today, a net withdrawal of 313 billion yuan was achieved. On April 1, the central parity rate of the RMB against the US dollar in the interbank foreign exchange market was 7.1775 yuan per US dollar. [Nanjing Fully Lifts Restrictions on Commodity Housing Sales] Nanjing held a press conference on further promoting the stable and healthy development of the Nanjing real estate market. Starting from April 1, 2025, sales restrictions will be lifted citywide in Nanjing, and commodity housing can be listed for sale after obtaining the real estate ownership certificate, effectively meeting residents' various housing replacement needs. In the US dollar: As of 11:45, the US dollar index fell 0.1% to 104.09. The market remains concerned that US reciprocal tariffs may exacerbate inflationary pressures and hinder global economic growth. US Treasury Secretary Besant said that Trump will announce reciprocal tariffs at 3 pm local time on Wednesday. The market is also closely watching the auto tariffs that will take effect on April 3. New York Fed President Williams said he cannot predict when the Fed may change the current interest rate level, but maintaining the status quo "for a while" will allow officials to study newly received data and decide on the next steps. In other currencies: The Reserve Bank of Australia decided to keep the cash rate target unchanged at 4.1%, while keeping the exchange settlement balance rate at 4%. The RBA kept rates unchanged as expected, with the AUD/USD showing little short-term fluctuation. (Huitong Finance) In data: Today, the US March SPGI Manufacturing PMI Final, US March ISM Manufacturing PMI, US February JOLTs Job Openings, Japan February Unemployment Rate, Japan Q1 BOJ Tankan Large Manufacturing Index, Japan Q1 BOJ Tankan Large Manufacturing Outlook, Japan Q1 BOJ Tankan Large Non-Manufacturing Index, Japan Q1 BOJ Tankan Large Non-Manufacturing Outlook, Eurozone March Core Harmonized CPI YoY - Unadjusted Preliminary, Eurozone February Unemployment Rate, France March SPGI Manufacturing PMI Final, Germany March SPGI Manufacturing PMI Final, Eurozone March SPGI Manufacturing PMI Final, UK March SPGI Manufacturing PMI Final, Mexico March SPGI Manufacturing PMI, Brazil March SPGI Manufacturing PMI, Australia ANZ Consumer Confidence Index for the Week Ended March 30, Australia April Cash Rate and other data will be released. In addition, the RBA will announce its interest rate decision, RBA Governor Bullock will hold a monetary policy press conference, and ECB President Lagarde will speak at the AI Conference. It should be noted that on the eve of the Qingming Festival holiday on April 3, the SGE, SHFE, CZCE, and DCE will have no night session. On April 4, the SGE, Taiwan Stock Exchange, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing Stock Exchanges, and domestic futures exchanges will all be closed for one day, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will be closed for one day due to the Qingming Festival, and northbound and southbound trading will be closed. In crude oil: As of 11:45, crude oil futures rose slightly, with WTI up 0.28% and Brent up 0.31%. Concerns that Russian and Iranian supplies may be affected supported oil prices, but worries that trade conflicts will impact global economic growth limited the gains. Before the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases its official weekly inventory data on Wednesday, the market will focus on the weekly inventory data released by the US industry group American Petroleum Institute (API) on Tuesday. A preliminary survey released on Monday showed that US crude, distillate, and gasoline inventories may have all fallen last week. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed was that US crude inventories fell by about 2.1 million barrels in the week ended March 28. API's weekly inventory report will be released at 4:30 on Wednesday, and EIA will release its weekly crude inventory report at 22:30 on Wednesday. (Webstock Inc.) Spot market overview: Copper prices stopped falling and rebounded, downstream companies began to replenish stocks, overall trading was better than yesterday [SMM South China Copper Spot]. Downstream replenishment enthusiasm slowed, spot premiums/discounts pulled back [SMM North China Copper Spot]. National NPI metal content fell about 2.25% MoM in March, expected to rise about 0.34% MoM in April [SMM Analysis]. Indonesian NPI metal content rose about 6.16% MoM in March, expected to fall about 0.44% MoM in April [SMM Analysis]. [SMM Survey] Central China rolling line rebar and coiled rebar production both fell, can it rebound next week? [SMM Analysis] Downstream demand improved, negative electrode material production rose in March. Other metal spot midday reviews will be updated later, please refresh to view.