Crude oil: international oil prices rose about 3% on Wednesday, and u. S. crude oil stocks fell again, indicating tight supply, investors worried about new western sanctions on Russia, and concerns about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
May crude oil futures, which are the most actively traded in NYMEX, rose 3.58 U.S. dollars, or 3.4 percent, to settle at 107.82 dollars a barrel at 14:30 on March 30th.
The May Brent contract, the most actively traded in ICE, rose $3.22 to settle at $113.45 a barrel, up 2.9 per cent.
On the dollar side: the dollar fell to a nearly two-week low on Wednesday as optimism about peace talks between Russia and Ukraine waned and investors turned their attention to economic data and interest rate expectations.
Today's focus: China's official manufacturing PMI in March, the actual annual rate of retail sales in Russia in February, the initial monthly rate of industrial output after the February quarterly adjustment in Japan, the final annual rate of GDP in the UK in the fourth quarter, and the total fuel inventory in Singapore for the week ended March 30.
Metal futures:
By the end of the day, basic metals in the inner market basically closed higher, while Shanghai Aluminum fell, down 0.35%. Shanghai nickel closed up 3.64%, Shanghai copper, lead and zinc all closed up about 0.9%, and Shanghai tin almost closed flat, an increase of 0.02%. Black series, all closed up except hot rolling. Hot rolling fell by 0.42%, stainless steel by 2.57%, iron ore by nearly 3%, and thread by 0.24%. Coal series, thermal coal continued to decline, closing down 3.37%. The price of coke increased by 2.5%, while that of coking coal rose by 0.7%.
During the night trading, only Shanghai tin fell 0.65%, Shanghai nickel rose more than 2%, Shanghai aluminum, lead and zinc all rose more than 1%, and Shanghai copper rose 0.11%. Black all-line red only thermal coal closed down by 0.39%, iron ore rose by more than 4%, coke by more than 3%, thread by more than 2%, hot rolled and coking coal by nearly 2%.
LME metal closed up across the board, with zinc rising 3.85%, aluminum up more than 3%, and lead and nickel both up more than 2%.
Precious metals, COMEX gold futures rose nearly 1% on Wednesday as the dollar fell and investors were sceptical about the possibility of a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.
At 13:30 on March 30th in New York (01:30 on March 31st, Beijing time), the COMEX June gold futures contract rose 21 US dollars, or 1.1 percent, to settle at 1939 US dollars per ounce.
It closed at 07:02 on March 31 and closed on March 30.
"Futures prices fluctuate greatly. For enterprise settlement, please refer to SMM spot quotation!
