SMM Morning Comment For Nickel Market On August 28

SHANGHAI, Aug 28 (SMM) –

SHFE 2309 nickel contract opened at 168,500 yuan/mt at the night session on August 25, and closed at 170,000 yuan/mt, up 1,200 yuan/mt. Trading volume dropped by 13,608 lots, and open interest decreased by 4,178 lots.

From a macro perspective, the US Department of Labor announced on the evening of last Thursday (August 24) that the number of people filing for unemployment benefits in the week ending August 19 was 230,000, lower than the previous value and the forecasted value of 240,000. This shows that the current US job market is still firm. The above-mentioned situation was good for the US dollar and bad for commodities, which will suppress the prices of commodities and put pressure on the non-ferrous metals sector. In the fundamentals, spot market transactions were depressed last Friday. Some upstream companies were eager to ship at lower premiums, but the downstream inventory was still at a high level due to previous purchases, causing downstream demand lack of support. So, nickel prices are expected to fluctuate in the future.