LME zinc opened at $2601/mt last Friday, and hit a high of $2619.5/mt before falling back to $2552/mt, and closed at $2560.5/mt, a decrease of $40.5/mt or 1.56%. The trading volume rose to 7581 lots, and open interest added 4026 lots to 204,000 lots. LME zinc inventory dropped by 2325 mt or 3.31% to 70150 mt. The expected one-year inflation rate of U.S. consumers in November was 4.4% higher than expected. The expected inflation rate for 5-10 years rose to 3.2% from 3% in October, the highest level since 2011. Higher inflation triggered market concerns. The Fed is worried about raising interest rates again, coupled with the Fed's hawkish statements, weighed down non-ferrous metals.
The most active SHFE 2311 prices opened at 21665 yuan/mt and lost 80 yuan/mt or 0.37% to settle at 21555 yuan/mt in overnight trading with the high-end of 21695 yuan/mt and the low-end of 21525 yuan/mt. Trading volumes decreased to 53478 lots and open interest fell 2623 lots to 85844 lots. According to SMM research, the social inventory of zinc in Shanghai increased slightly by 0.4 thousand tons to 98,000 tons last Friday, weakening the support for zinc prices. Poor spot trades and LME zinc also pushed SHFE zinc prices lower.
