Nickel prices rose on Wednesday, thanks to continued optimism about the global economic recovery, while the US dollar fell against most of its peers.

The FDA has given last week full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

It should be noted that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome stated that the Fed will start tapering its asset purchases before the end of 2021, but will not start to raise interest rates soon.

Analysts expect a spike in demand for commodities and metals, including nickel, as it recently has attracted strong demand from the electric vehicle industry in addition to demand from the steel industry.

The dollar index fell against a basket of major currencies by 0.2% to 92.4 points as of 13:23 GMT, after hitting a high of 92.7 points and a low of 92.4 points.

Nickel spot prices rose 2.3% to $19,362.8 per tonne as of 13:34 GMT.

Most of the major US stock benchmarks rose on Wednesday, as Nasdaq hit a new record, ahead of the monthly jobs report.

ADB data showed that the US private sector added 374K new jobs in August, missing forecasts of 640K.

This comes ahead of the US August's monthly jobs report next Friday.

It should be noted that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome stated that the Fed will start tapering its asset purchases before the end of 2021, but will not start to raise interest rates soon.

As for stocks, Dow Jones fell 0.1% or 43 points to 35,317 as of 14:04 GMT, and S&P 500 rose 0.1% or 7 point to 4,529, while Nasdaq rose 0.5% or 84 points to 15,343.

The US dollar fell against a majority of rivals on Wednesday, near a 4-week low for the fourth straight day, as demand slowed down following recent bearish remarks by Fed Chair Jerome Powell, which pushed forecasts for a rate hike farther away, ahead of the US jobs data for August.

The dollar index fell 0.1% to 92.62 points, after opening at 92.67 points, and hit a low of 92.78 points.

The US dollar fell 0.1% yesterday, in the third straight daily loss against a basket of major currencies and hit a 4-week low at 92.40 points.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell stated that the Fed will start tapering its asset purchases before the end of 2021, but will not start to raise interest rates soon.

Powell added that such a step won't pace the way for quick rate hikes, because such a step requires much stricter tests for economic performance.

Now investors await a variety of important US data this week, including private sector employment data which would help determine the likely path of interest rates. 

At 12:15 GMT, the US private sector employment is expected to have added 640K jobs in August, up from 330K in July.

At 15:00 GMT, the ISM service PMI reading is expected to reach 58.5 points in August from 59.5 points in August.

At 12:15 GMT, the US economy released its reading of the ADP Non-Farm employment change index for August at 374K new jobs, worse than forecasts of 640K jobs, but better than the previous reading of 326K after it was revised from 330K. This data is negative for the US dollar.