LME zinc prices opened at $2466/mt and closed up $13.5/mt or 0.55% at $2489/mt last evening. The trading volume decreased to 6938 lots, and open interest added 899 lots to 201,000 lots.
LME zinc inventory decreased by 3225 mt to 145175 mt. The number of initial jobless cliams in the US for the week ending September 2 stood at 216,000, hitting a six-month low. That showed that the labor market is still resilient, and expectations of interest rate hikes continued to rise. The U.S. dollar index remained at a high level, but stopped rising at the end of the day. This, combined with falling LME zinc inventories, helped LME zinc rebound.
The most active SHFE 2310 zinc contract prices opened at 21355 yuan/mt and closed at 21530 yuan/mt last evening, up 175 yuan/mt or 0.82%. The trading volume was down to 91537 lots, and open interest decreased 6955 lots to 115,000 lots. Favorable policies for real estate and automobiles, coupled with the current declining zinc concentrate TCs, provided support for SHFE zinc prices.
