SMM Nickel Market Morning Comment (Mar 27)

Overnight, the most-traded SHFE nickel contract opened at 132,880 yuan/mt, and closed at 131,780 yuan/mt, down 1,550 yuan/mt. Trading volume fell by 20,976 lots, and open interest decreased by 1,689 lots. From a macro perspective, the US Fed has kept the upper limit of its interest rate at 5.5%. The Fed once again maintained interest rates unchanged. Powell's speech has not disclosed when to cut interest rate. This interest rate decision will have little impact on the market. Fundamentally, the progress of nickel ore approval accelerated and production of intermediate product projects in Indonesia ramped up. The market's expectations for tight supply of raw materials began to weaken. On the other hand, affected by the sharp drop in nickel prices, transactions in the spot market picked up, and downstream purchasing sentiment recovered. Nickel price is expected to go down.