SINGAPORE: Copper prices rose for a third consecutive session on Monday as signs of progress in U.S.-China trade talks supported the market.
But most industrial metals are heading for losses in 2018, with copper facing its first annual decline since 2015 on worries over slowing economic growth in top consumer China.
FUNDAMENTALS
* Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose 0.6 percent to $6,030.50 a tonne by 0634 GMT. For the year, copper has fallen almost 17 percent.
* China's manufacturing sector is expected to have contracted for the first time in more than two years in December, reinforcing a deteriorating economic outlook and the need for more policy support to weather rising external and domestic pressures.
* Data last week showed earnings at Chinese industrial firms in November dropped for the first time in nearly three years.
* Signs of progress on trade talks between the United States and China could support prices in early January.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he had a "long and very good call" with Chinese President Xi Jinping and that a possible trade deal between the two sides was progressing well.
* Chilean miner Collahuasi - which produced an estimated 545,000 tonnes of copper this year - has applied for an environmental permit to extend the life of its deposit with an estimated $3.2 billion investment.
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MARKETS NEWS
* Asian stocks crept higher on Monday as signs of progress in the Sino-U.S. trade standoff provided a rare glint of optimism in what has been a disappointing year for equities in the region.
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