Metals showed mixed performance, with LME tin hitting a more than two-year high, gold prices dropped back slightly, and iron ore and coke led the gains in the black metals sector.

SMM April 2 News: In the metal market, both domestic and overseas metal markets generally fell overnight, with only SHFE tin and SHFE nickel rising, up 0.89% and 0.49% respectively. SHFE zinc led the decline with a 0.91% drop. LME tin rose 1.3%, hitting a high of $37,565/mt during the session, the highest since May 2022. Changes in other metals were relatively small. The main alumina contract fell 0.07%. In the ferrous metals series, iron ore rose 1.34%, while rebar and HRC gained around 0.5%. In the coking coal and coke sector, coking coal rose 0.75%, and coke increased 1.08%. In the precious metals market, COMEX gold fell 0.06%, and COMEX silver dropped 0.7%, marking three consecutive declines. Domestically, SHFE gold rose 0.42% to 736.12 yuan/gram, while SHFE silver fell 0.43%. As of 8:25 AM on April 2, the overnight closing market. Click to view the SMM futures data dashboard. On the macro front, domestically: The world is on high alert! The White House stated that reciprocal tariffs will "take effect immediately" after being announced on Wednesday. According to media reports, on Tuesday local time, the White House indicated that the "reciprocal tariffs" to be introduced by US President Trump will "take effect immediately" after being announced on Wednesday. "My understanding is that the tariff announcement will be made tomorrow. They will take effect immediately," White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said at a press conference on Tuesday. "The President has hinted at this for a long time," Levitt said, noting that Trump has repeatedly described April 2 as America's "Liberation Day." Markets and consumers are awaiting details of the tariffs the US plans to announce on Wednesday. According to a press conference on the "Several Policy Measures for Promoting the Innovative Development of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Industry in Guangdong Province," to attract global multinational companies, including those in the AI and robotics industries, to invest and establish roots in Guangdong, under Guangdong's new round of foreign investment incentive policy, individual foreign investment projects in the AI and robotics industries can receive a maximum subsidy of 3% during the policy implementation period, capped at 150 million yuan. According to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), from January to February, over 1.07 million vehicles were traded in, driving new car sales to 116.5 billion yuan; domestic passenger vehicle retail sales increased 1.2% YoY, with a significant 26% YoY growth in February. In the US dollar market, the US dollar index rose 0.02% overnight, as US economic data showed weak performance in manufacturing and the labour market. US manufacturing contracted in March after two months of expansion, while factory input price indices reached their highest level in nearly three years. Meanwhile, concerns are growing about how much tariffs will drive up consumer and producer prices. The Labor Department report also showed that job vacancies fell to 7.568 million in February. Weekly initial jobless claims and monthly non-farm payroll data to be released later this week may provide further insight into the economic damage caused by the uncertainty of US trade policy. In other currencies, the euro fell 0.29% to $1.0786, but rose 4.5% in Q1, the strongest quarterly performance since Q4 2022, largely due to Germany's commitment to significantly increase fiscal spending. At the same time, concerns over tariff impacts and weak economic data have led investors to increase bets on future interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank, causing bond yields and the euro to fall. Among other currencies, the Australian dollar rose 0.4% to $0.6271, after the Reserve Bank of Australia kept interest rates unchanged, in line with expectations. On Monday, the Australian dollar hit $0.6217, the lowest level since March 4. In terms of data, today will see the release of US March ADP employment change, US February durable goods orders MoM revised, US February factory orders MoM, Malaysia March manufacturing PMI, and Australia March AIG manufacturing performance index. Additionally, US President Trump plans to implement reciprocal tariffs. It is important to note that on the eve of the Qingming Festival holiday on April 3, there will be no night session trading on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, SHFE, Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, and DCE. On April 4, the Shanghai Gold Exchange, Taiwan Stock Exchange, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing Stock Exchanges, and domestic futures exchanges will be closed for the day. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange will also be closed for the day due to the Qingming Festival, with northbound and southbound trading suspended. In the crude oil market, both oil prices fell overnight, with WTI crude down 0.48% and Brent crude down 0.35%, as traders worried that reciprocal tariffs to be announced by the US on Wednesday could exacerbate global trade tensions. However, increased supply concerns limited the decline in oil prices. Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho, said, "The market is getting a bit jittery. We might lose some supply from Mexico, Venezuela, and Canada, but the demand destruction could definitely outweigh these supplies." A survey of economists and analysts predicted that oil prices this year will continue to be pressured by US tariffs and economic slowdowns in countries like India, while OPEC+ will increase supply. The US has threatened to impose secondary tariffs of 25% to 50% on Russian oil buyers and similar tariffs on Iran. Tariffs on oil buyers from Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter, would disrupt global supply. The market will focus on the OPEC+ ministerial committee policy review meeting on April 5. Market participants said OPEC+ is expected to increase daily production by 135,000 barrels in May. OPEC+ has agreed to a similar increase in April. As a non-OPEC producer participating in the OPEC+ agreement, Kazakhstan's daily production of crude oil and condensate may have reached a record 2.17 million barrels last month, further exceeding the country's crude oil production cap under the OPEC+ agreement, while the daily average production in February was 2.15 million barrels/day. Data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed that US crude oil inventories increased last week, while refined product inventories declined. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release its weekly crude oil inventory report at 22:30 on Wednesday.

SMM

Metals showed mixed performance, with LME tin hitting a more than two-year high, gold prices dropped back slightly, and iron ore and coke led the gains in the black metals sector.

Trump's Tariff Countdown, Copper Prices Under Pressure with Low-Level Fluctuations [SMM Morning Comment on Copper]

US retail organizations urged Trump to abandon the tariff policy. SHFE tin prices jumped initially and then pulled back during the night session. [SMM Tin Morning Brief]