SMM Evening Comments (Jan 17)

SHANGHAI, Jan 17 (SMM)? 1/4 ?SHFE lead stood out from the performance of other nonferrous metals on Wednesday afternoon, with a 0.6% rise. Nickel was down 2% and copper was down almost 2%. Aluminium dipped 1.8%. Zinc and tin also slid slightly.

The ferrous complex also dipped. Coking coal fell 2% despite a slight rise of rebar. Coke and iron ore dipped almost 1% and hot-rolled coil slightly slipped.

Copper: SHFE copper is expected to remain weak tonight with investors cutting their long bets. The US monthly industrial output data in December may give cues to the market tonight.

Nickel: Nickel saw an outflow of 122 million yuan today, while the US data is also set to give further guidance in the night trading session.  

Aluminium: We maintain our view that SHFE aluminium is in a downward trend in the short term as both trading volumes and open interest dropped. 

Zinc: Zinc traded between the 10-day and 20-day moving averages and it is expected to move downwards and trade at the 26,000 yuan/mt level tonight. Downstream consumption remained weak, leaving investors little confidence in adding to their bets.

Tin: SHFE tin dropped slightly today with below support at 144,000 yuan/mt.

Lead: SHFE lead recovered the loss yesterday but the upward momentum seemed limited today. We see resistance at the 20-day moving average.

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