Nickel trading suspended in London after price rockets

The price of nickel on the London Metal Exchange closed on Monday up 44%, at nearly $43,000 per metric ton.

• Early Tuesday, the price spiked to more than $100,000, before the London Metal Exchange stepped in to halt trading.

The big picture: Nickel is a key ingredient in the stainless steel and batteries that end up in electric vehicles.

• Russia commodities giant Norilsk Nickel is the single largest producer. The surge in prices for the metal highlights how the Russia shock will keep the pressure on a global manufacturing system that was already struggling to recover from the pandemic.

What we're watching: Price spikes like this typically suggest a trading firm is incredibly desperate to get its hand on the metal to close out a "short" trade that's gone horribly wrong. Bloomberg reports that it could be a major Chinese stainless steel producer.