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.