SMM Nickel Market Morning Comment (Mar 22)

Overnight, the most-traded SHFE nickel contract opened at 136,360 yuan/mt, and closed at 137,980 yuan/mt, down 1,420 yuan/mt. Trading volume fell by 11,347 lots, and open interest decreased by 1,885 lots. From a macro perspective, the Fed announced yesterday evening that the March interest rate range will remain unchanged. 10 Fed officials expected the interest rate to fall by at least 75 basis points by the end of this year. However, Powell said that the possibility of a rate cut in May is still small. Fundamentally, the progress of nickel ore approval accelerated. The market's expectations for tight supply of raw materials began to weaken, so the prices fell sharply in the afternoon. In addition, according to SMM research, the tight output of intermediate products is expected to ease in April. Nickel price is expected to go down.