(Updates with closing prices)By Peter HobsonLONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - Industrial metals prices rosesharply on Wednesday after U.S. and Chinese negotiators opened anew round of trade talks and Federal Reserve Chairman JeromePowell bolstered expectations of a U.S. interest rate cut laterthis month.Copper, aluminium, zinc, nickel and lead each gained morethan 1.5% on the London Metal Exchange (LME), with benchmarkcopper closing up 2% at $5,940 a tonne.They are still well down from a year ago, however, when U.S.President Donald Trump began a trade conflict with China whichinvestors expect to weaken economic growth and metals demand.Nickel ended 2.3% higher at $12,990 a tonne aftertouching $13,000, the highest since April 17.
But weak supply and demand fundamentals mean prices of themetal used in stainless steel will likely slip to $11,000 by theend of the year, said Capital Economics analyst Ross Strachan.
"Demand is pretty poor and auto sales are still prettyweak," he said. FED: Concerns about trade policy and a weak global economy"continue to weigh on the U.S. economic outlook" and the Fedstands ready to "act as appropriate" to sustain a decade-longexpansion, Powell said. U.S. equities touched record highs and the dollar weakened. TRADE TALKS: U.S. and Chinese trade officials held aconstructive phone conversation, White House economic adviserLarry Kudlow said, marking a new round of talks. Kudlow said thediscussion went well. COLUMN: The base metal markets are suffering from trade warfatigue, with LME volumes down 7% in the first half of 2019,writes Andy Home. CHINA: China's producer prices flatlined in June, fuellingconcerns that a slowdown in manufacturing will further drag ongrowth in the world's largest metals consumer. China's economic growth is expected to slow to a near30-year low of 6.2% this year, a Reuters poll showed. NICKEL STOCKS: Inventories in LME-registered warehouses arethe lowest since 2013 at 153,612 tonnes, though stocks inShanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) storehouses more than doubledin recent weeks to 21,811 tonnes.FUNDAMENTALS: There was a global deficit of 27,200 tonnesover January-April in the 2.4 million tonne a year nickelmarket, the International Nickel Study Group said. Indonesia said this week it expected three nickel smeltersto become operational in 2019, with annual processing capacityof 3.9 million tonnes of ore. NYRSTAR: Nyrstar said it was extending forcemajeure at its Port Pirie lead and zinc smelter in Australia. SCRAP: China issued a fresh batch of import quotas for newlyrestricted high-grade copper scrap and aluminium scrap. ALUMINIUM: Bosnia's sole aluminium smelter was shut down onWednesday over a huge debt it had incurred. OTHER METALS: LME aluminium finished up 1.7% at$1,850 a tonne, zinc rose 1.7% to $2,401 and lead gained 2.2% to $1,963. Tin bucked the trend toclose down 0.1% at $18,200 a tonne.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Peter Hobson; Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen;editing by Louise Heavens, David Evans, Jan Harvey and AlexanderSmith)