LONDON, Jan. 11 (Reuters) – Copper prices rose on Friday as China and the United States prepared to hold further trade talks to resolve their disputes, sparking hopes of easing trade disputes between the two countries.

U.S. officials expect China’s top trade negotiator to visit Washington this month, suggesting that the two countries may hold higher-level consultations following the middle-level official talks held in Beijing this week.

The tit-for-tat trade dispute between China and the United States has depressed the prices of basic metals, as the market expects that trade disputes will damage demand, especially from China, the largest consumer.

“A series of weak data released at the beginning of the year raised concerns about demand, but given the progress in trade negotiations, the environment for basic metals has improved,” said Jens Pedersen, commodities analyst at Dansk Bank in Denmark.

London Metal Exchange (LME) copper closed up 0.2% at $5,942 a tonne for three-month periods, expected to record its biggest one-week gain since mid-November.

The dollar rose against the euro, boosted by technical factors. The dollar fell earlier as the Federal Reserve (Federal Reserve/FED) will be patient with monetary policy.

According to policy sources, China plans to reduce its economic growth target for 2019 from 6.5% in 2018 to 6.5%. The Chinese government is prepared to deal with adverse factors such as tariffs imposed by the United States and weakening domestic demand.

Antaike, A Research Institute of the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association, said that last year China’s refined zinc production showed its biggest drop since 2013 due to tight raw material supply, prolonged maintenance cycle and relocation of China’s largest smelter.

LME spot zinc has shrunk from three-month zinc discount to $12 per ton, the narrowest level since October 15.

Nickel was the biggest base metal, up 2% to $11,460 a tonne, hitting its highest level since November 15.

Futures aluminium fell 1.3% to $1,836 a tonne.

Zinc rose 1.3% to $2,492 per ton.

Lead rose 1.3% to $2,002 per ton.

Tin rose 0.8% to $20,300 a tonne after hitting a six-month high.

The closing price of p-xylene in the U.S. market rose 12.5 U.S. dollars per ton on January 11, closing at $1000.5-1010.5 U.S. dollars per ton FOB in the U.S. Gulf.

On January 8, the PX commodity index was 64.80, which was the same as yesterday. It was 36.72% lower than the peak of 102.40 points in the cycle (2013-02-28), and 42.26% higher than the low of 45.55 points on February 15, 2016. (Note: Period refers to 2013-02-01 to date).

Recently, the domestic market price trend of p-xylene has been temporarily stable. Pengzhou Petrochemical Unit has been running steadily. Urumqi Petrochemical Unit has started 50% of its operation. Fuhaichuang Aromatic Hydrocarbon Unit has been in shutdown. Other units have been running steadily for the time being. The domestic market supply of p-xylene is normal. The market price trend of p-xylene is temporarily stable. The opening rate of PX plant in Asia is less than 70%. On Jan. 8, the closing price of PX plant in Asia increased by 9 US dollars/ton. The closing price was 984-986 US dollars/ton FOB in Korea and 1004-1006 US dollars/ton CFR in China. More than 50% of PX plant in China needed to be imported. The rise of foreign price has a positive impact on domestic market price of paraxylene, and the intra-site price maintained 8,100 RMB/ton.

On January 8, the price of WTI crude oil in February rose to $49.78 per barrel, an increase of $1.26. Brent crude oil in March rose to $58.72 per barrel, an increase of $1.39. The closing price of crude oil rose slightly, which supported the price of downstream petrochemical products. The price trend of paraxylene market was temporarily stable. Recent textile industry prices have risen, downstream PTA market prices have risen slightly, PTA prices have recently risen slightly. The average offer price in East China is raised near 6300-6400 yuan/ton. As of the 8th day, domestic PTA start-up rate is about 75%, polyester industry start-up rate is about 84%. In addition, the upstream production and marketing market is general, PTA market prices have declined, and the price of PX market is expected to remain volatile in the later period.

European and American crude oil futures rose for the sixth consecutive trading day, up more than 7% since Monday, supported by OPEC’s production cuts and stable stock markets. The news that Saudi Arabia plans to reduce exports also supports the market.

On Monday, January 7, WTI crude oil futures settled at $48.52 a barrel in February 2019, up $0.56, or 1.2%, from the previous trading day, with a trading range of $48.11-49.79; Brent crude oil settled at $57.33 a barrel in March 2019, up $0.27, or 0.5%, from the previous trading day, with a trading range of $57.26-58.93.

NEW YORK, Jan. 7 (Reuters) – Oil prices rose slightly on Monday, rebounding further from a year-and-a-half low hit in December last year, supported by OPEC output cuts and stock market stabilization.

Crude oil futures prices have risen by more than 7% since last Monday.

“Market momentum is returning to very low price levels,” said Olivier Jakob, a strategist at Petromatrix.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Saudi Arabia plans to cut its crude oil exports to about 7.1 million barrels a day by the end of January, which supports oil prices.

OPEC and its allies are trying to curb the surge in global oil supply, driven mainly by the United States, which produced more than 11 million barrels of crude oil a day in 2018. Record crude oil production boosted U.S. crude oil inventories.

According to a Reuters survey last week, OPEC’s crude oil supply fell by 460,000 barrels a day in December to 32.68 million barrels, a decrease by Saudi Arabia, an exporter of OPEC’s crude oil.

Traders quoted data from Genscape, a market intelligence company, as saying that U.S. crude oil futures delivery point, Cushing, Oklahoma, had a 565,000 barrel decline in crude oil inventories from Tuesday to Friday.

Stock market rallies also support oil prices.

Goldman Sachs said in a report that it lowered its average Brent crude oil forecast for 2019 from $70 to $62.50 a barrel because of “strong macro resistance since 2015.”

Societe Generale cut its Brent crude oil price forecast by $9 to $64 a barrel in 2019 and the US crude oil price forecast by $9 to $57 a barrel.

On October 22nd, the inventory of zinc ingots in London’s LME market was 167,450 tons, and the inventory was reduced by 3,800 tons. The change ratio was 2.22%.

On October 22, LME zinc ingots were 167,450 tons, of which 104,950 tons were registered warehouse receipts, 62,500 tons were cancelled, and 37.32% were cancelled.