At the morning close, China's main futures contracts were mixed. Palladium rose
over 4%; Shanghai silver, platinum, styrene (EB), Shanghai crude (SC), benzene
and Shanghai gold gained more than 2%; Shanghai nickel rose nearly 2%. On the
downside, container-freight Europe-route futures fell over 6%; coke slipped
nearly 4%; coking coal and plywood declined more than 3%; fuel oil dropped over
2%; low-sulfur fuel oil (LU) fell nearly 2%; caustic soda and soda ash were down
more than 1%.