Editor’s Note
This article provides a snapshot of China’s futures market performance on the first trading day after the Spring Festival holiday, highlighting a predominantly positive trend. It offers a concise overview and initial sector analysis for investors monitoring post-holiday market activity.
On February 24th, the first trading day after the Spring Festival holiday, China’s futures market showed a pattern of more gains than losses.
In terms of sector performance, the agricultural products sector was relatively weak, the energy and chemical sector saw a slight overall increase, while the metal sector experienced broad-based gains. Among them, precious metals, represented by silver, performed the strongest. The main contract for silver futures opened with a gap up in the morning session and maintained a gain of over 10% throughout the day.
Wang Wei, a senior copper researcher at Galaxy Futures, told Securities Daily that during the Spring Festival holiday, changes in U.S. tariff policies triggered a rise in market risk aversion. Coupled with the fact that non-ferrous metals are currently in a restocking phase, this has provided significant support for prices. In the short term, copper prices will continue to lead the non-ferrous metals sector, mainly due to three factors: first, the tight supply situation persists; second, geopolitical risks have intensified, increasing demand for strategic resource reserves in various countries; and third, the decline in U.S. dollar credit is continuously strengthening the financial attributes of non-ferrous metals.
During the Spring Festival holiday, precious metal prices in overseas markets showed a pattern of falling first and then rising. Notably, New York silver futures prices rebounded continuously from a low of $71.82 per ounce and are currently fluctuating around $88 per ounce.
Cong Shanshan, a precious metals researcher at Huishang Futures Research Institute, stated that during the holiday, international gold and silver prices were weak initially and then strengthened, mainly influenced by rising market risk aversion, geopolitical risks, and expectations of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut. Currently, changes in U.S. tariff policies still carry high uncertainty, and domestic and international precious metals may maintain a relatively strong trend.
Wu Zijie, a precious metals researcher at Jinrui Futures, told reporters that the strong performance of precious metals on the first trading day after the holiday was mainly driven by international silver prices. Simultaneously, tight supply in the domestic spot market provides a solid foundation for silver futures prices to rise.
On the first trading day after the holiday, multiple commodity sectors strengthened, with significant capital inflows. Data from Shanghai Wenhuacai Information Co., Ltd. shows that on February 24th, commodity futures saw a net capital inflow of nearly 45 billion yuan compared to the previous trading day. By specific contracts, SHFE gold, SHFE silver, SHFE copper, and lithium carbonate saw the largest inflows, with SHFE silver attracting nearly 10 billion yuan and SHFE gold nearly 8 billion yuan. As of now, the accumulated capital in SHFE gold has reached 154.867 billion yuan, and in SHFE silver has exceeded 90 billion yuan, making them among the top commodity futures contracts by accumulated capital.
