The recent trend of zinc prices is still greatly affected by the expectation of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve under the background of inflation and funds. That, combined with the fundamentals, kept zinc prices at a high level. The logic of ore shortage remains unchanged, and domestic and imported zinc concentrate TCs are declining.

LME copper prices opened at $10385/mt and closed at $10371.5/mt in last evening trading, a gain of 0.87%, with the low-end of $10310/mt and the high-end of $10445.5/mt.

LME zinc prices opened at $2988/mt last evening and touched an intraday high of $3007/mt, with the low-end of $2940.5/mt. It closed down $22/mt or 0.74% at $2961/mt

LME copper prices opened at $10049.5/mt and closed at $10040/mt in last Friday evening trading, a gain of 0.9%, with the low-end of $9976.5/mt and the high-end of $10079/mt.

Last Friday, LME zinc opened at $2917/mt, hitting a low and high of $2902.5/mt and $2959.5/mt respectively, and closed at $2945/mt, up $35/mt or 1.20%. Trading volume increased to 10050 lots, and open interest grew 1464 lots to 240,000 lots.

Zinc prices rebounded from lows last week. The US economic growth was unexpectedly weak. But the core PCE rose 3.7%, far exceeding expectations. Inflation was high. Initial jobless claims were 207,000, indicating a strong labour market.