[SMM Platinum and Palladium Weekly Review] This week (January 5 – January 9), the most-traded platinum contract PT2606 opened at 612 yuan/gram and closed at 599.8 yuan/gram, rising 51.4 yuan/gram or 9.37% WoW from last week's settlement price. Its weekly highest price was 652.85 yuan/gram and the lowest was 566.4 yuan/gram. The most-traded palladium contract PD2606 opened at 467 yuan/gram and closed at 499.05 yuan/gram, rising 83.15 yuan/gram or 19.99% WoW from last week's settlement price. Its weekly highest price was 511.8 yuan/gram and the lowest was 437.25 yuan/gram. In futures trading: the most-traded platinum contract PT2606 had a total weekly trading volume of 197,807 lots, a total turnover of 179.19 billion yuan, and an open interest of 31,994 lots, which decreased by 1,272 lots WoW. The most-traded palladium contract PD2606 had a total weekly trading volume of 185,148 lots, a total turnover of 83.708 billion yuan, and an open interest of 12,960 lots, which decreased by 1,445 lots WoW.
Recent price movements were primarily driven by geopolitical conflicts, the results of the US Section 232 tariff investigation, and CME's further increase in precious metal futures margins. Data released by Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) showed that US enterprises added 41,000 new jobs in the final month of 2025, indicating a slight improvement in the sluggish labour market. Although job numbers stopped falling and rebounded, the data still fell short of institutional expectations of 48,000 new jobs. In the early hours of January 3, the US military conducted a lightning strike on Venezuela, capturing the Maduro couple, which heightened geopolitical risks and injected short-term safe-haven premiums into precious metals. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) issued a notice on the 8th local time to increase performance margins for precious metal varieties, the third such notice in nearly a month. The notice stated that after the close on January 9 local time, it would raise margins for gold, silver, platinum, and palladium futures inter-month spread and related spread contracts. CME stated that the margin adjustments were based on a review of market volatility to ensure sufficient collateral coverage. Additionally, the results of the US critical minerals Section 232 tariff investigation are expected to be announced this Saturday (January 10), a decision that will have a significant market impact on Comex silver and platinum group metal prices.
This week, trading in the platinum and palladium spot market was overall sluggish, mainly driven by investment demand. End-users showed low purchase willingness at high levels, with some traders reporting large price spreads between offers and bids, severe price pressure from large-volume purchases, and low willingness among upstream enterprises to sell at large discounts.
