The nickel futures at the London Metal Exchange (LME) hiked by US$300 and closed at US$15,537/ton on June 2. Meanwhile, the spot prices also soared by US$393 to US$15,334/ton. Besides, the inventory monitored by LME reversed to increase by 930 tons to 200,310 tons.

Due to the weakening of the US dollar and the rebound of China’s manufacturing PMI in May to 49.5, an increase of 0.5 from the previous month, reflecting an improvement in economic conditions, market sentiment improved. In addition, reports that Trump and Xi Jinping are expected to have a phone call this week further boosted the market, driving nickel prices higher. However, Trump’s tariff and trade policies remain unpredictable, and the market outlook still requires further observation.