Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly higher during morning trading on Friday May 10, with price action largely unaffected by the United States' decision to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods from 10% to 25%.
Rebounding by more than 1.6% over the morning session, the LME three-month nickel futures are now trading above $12,000 per tonne, with volumes traded moderately high at more than 4,500 lots exchanged as of 9:45am London time. Contributing to the upward move, LME inventories remain at their lowest level since 2012 at 169,578 tonnes, while just over 100,000 tonnes remains on-warrant after a fresh cancelation of 1,566 tonnes took place across LME-listed warehouses in Rotterdam. That said, tightness in nickel's forward spreads continued to make spot business less favorable, with the nearby cash/May spreads recently in a $1-per-tonne contango and...