* GRAPHIC-2019 asset returns: (Updates with closing prices)By Eric OnstadLONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Zinc prices gained on Friday onconcerns about short-term shortages, but other industrial metalprices were mixed due to uncertainty about any U.S.-China tradedeal.
While metals had been boosted earlier by U.S. PresidentDonald Trump's comments on Thursday that the two countries wereclose to a trade deal, on Friday Trump said he did not want topredict a deal would be reached and a White House adviser saidissues still remained.Volumes were light, with Chinese participants away and theShanghai Futures Exchange (ShFE) closed for the Tomb SweepingDay holiday. It will reopen on Monday.Analyst Carsten Menke at Julius Baer in Zurich was notconvinced thatany U.S. deal with top metals consumer Chinawould lift the market."If you make the call that with the trade talks China willdo better in the future, then the economy will need lessstimulus. Even if we get a deal, which I think is quite likely,I wouldn't expect any major lift in industrial metals demand,"he said."For me, it's really no game changer. I see both aluminiumand copper well supplied going forward."
Zinc is the second best performing metal on the London MetalExchange this year behind nickel, up 18 percent as rising supplyfrom mines has faced bottlenecks in being processed into metal.Benchmark LME zinc rose 0.9 percent in open outcrytrading to close at $2,922 a tonne.
* ZINC/COPPER SPREADS: The premium of LME cash zinc over thethree-month contract was at $59 a tonne, near the peakof $76.75 touched a week ago, which was the strongest sinceearly January, indicating near-term shortages in the LME system.LME cash copper, on the other hand, has deepened itsdiscount against the three-month contract to $15.75 atonne, the biggest discount since early February, showinghealthy supplies, compared with a premium of $70 in early March.
* COPPER STOCKS: Copper stockpiles in LME-approvedwarehouses remained at high levels on Fridayafter having surged this week, climbing to the highest in sixmonths and nearly double the level three weeks ago.Copper inventories at warehouses tied to the ShFE remainednear a nine-month high. LME copper finished down 0.8 percent at $6,401 atonne.
* NORSK HYDRO: Production at Norwegian aluminium maker NorskHydro was back to near normal after a cyber attack lastmonth, the company said on Friday.
* PRICES: Three-month LME aluminium shed 0.3 percentto $1,890 a tonne, nickel was bid up 0.2 percent at$13,120, lead closed down 0.4 percent at $1,986 and tin fell 0.4 percent to $21,000.
* For the top stories in metals and other news, click or <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS London 3-mth copper dips as inventories jump ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen in Singapore and PeterHobson in LondonEditing by David Evans and Louise Heavens)