Swinging LME Zinc Prices Shed Light on Marco Sentiment Change

SHANGHAI, Apr 19 (SMM) – US Treasury Secretary Stephen Yellen will lay out the Biden administration's main goals for US-China economic relations in a speech in Washington this Thursday as tensions between the world's two largest economies have prevented high-level meetings. Atlanta Fed President Bostic said Tuesday that the Fed is likely to raise rates one more time. Specifically, he expects the interest rate to be hiked by 25 basis points to 5.00-5.25%.

Overnight, LME zinc opened at $2,832.5/mt and closed at $2,849.5/mt, up $14.5/mt or 0.51%. Trading volume stood at 4,881 lots, and open interest lost 3,192 lots to 172,000 lots. The market's varied views on the Fed's subsequent interest rate hikes gave rise to persisting bearish sentiment, which capped the growth of LME zinc prices.

The most-traded SHFE zinc 2305 opened at 22,355 yuan/mt and finally settled at 22,295 yuan/mt, down 100 yuan/mt or 0.45%. The trading volume was 61,000 lots, and open interest added by 5,186 lots to 70,800 lots. Although TCs for zinc concentrates keep falling recently, zinc smelters still gain healthy profits and remain active in restocking imported zinc concentrates. Therefore, the domestic zinc ingot supply will be sufficient, signalling limited fundamental support for SHFE zinc prices.