MANILA: Copper prices rose in early Asian trading on Monday following eight straight weekly losses, after Washington struck a deal to avert a tariff war with Mexico, boosting sentiment on trade and helping ease concerns about a global slowdown.
Data on Monday showed that despite higher US tariffs, China's exports unexpectedly returned to growth in May, but imports fell in a further sign of weak domestic demand that could prompt Beijing to step up stimulus measures.
FUNDAMENTALS
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was up 0.4pc at $5,824 a tonne by 0217 GMT. The benchmark fell 0.2pc on Friday and had posted a weekly loss of 0.5pc.
The most-traded copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange edged up 0.4pc to 46,260 yuan ($6,671.76) a tonne, as Chinese markets reopened after a three-day weekend.
The United States and Mexico struck a deal on Friday to avert a tariff war, with Mexico agreeing to rapidly expand a controversial asylum programme and deploy security forces to stem the flow of illegal Central American migrants.
A highly anticipated late June meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping has some parallels with their Buenos Aires summit last December that postponed a tariff hike, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday.
Group of 20 finance leaders on Sunday said that trade and geopolitical tensions have "intensified", raising risks to improving global growth, but they stopped short of calling for a resolution of a deepening US-China trade conflict.
International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Sunday called on the Group of 20 major economies to prioritise resolving trade tensions to mitigate risks to global growth.
China summoned global technology companies for talks last week following last month's US ban on selling technology to China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.
Unions at Chile's Chuquicamata copper mine expressed disappointment in state-run miner Codelco's latest contract offer on Thursday but agreed to extend negotiations in hopes of averting a strike.
MARKETS NEWS
US stock futures jumped on Monday after a migration deal between the United States and Mexico late last week to avert a tariff war added to a weak US job data which cemented expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts.
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