* Chinese currency depreciation to help exports
* Copper's resistance at $6,110 where moving averagesconverging (Updates with closing prices)By Pratima DesaiLONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Copper prices climbed to one-weekhighs on Wednesday after reports of fresh stimulus in topconsumer China and signs of progress in Sino-U.S. trade talksreinforced expectations of stronger growth and demand.Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange endedup 0.9 percent at $5,958 a tonne. Earlier, the metal used widelyin power and construction touched $6,008 a tonne, its highestsince Dec. 31."Depreciation of the Chinese currency and the stimuluseffect will start to come through and Chinese data will start toimprove, a major positive for industrial metals," said Guy Wolf,global head of market analytics at brokerage Marex Spectron."Chinese data coming through confirms that growth slowedsignificantly, but this is all rearview mirror stuff."
CURRENCY: The Chinese yuan has fallen nearly 10percent against the dollar since March last year. This will helpits export industry, a large part of China's economy.
STIMULUS: Latest comes from a state planning officer sayingChina plans to introduce policies to boost domestic spending onitems such as autos and home appliances this year as part ofwider efforts to boost consumption in China. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) willalso introduce policies in house leasing and services, as wellas elderly and child care, with plans to also lower investmentbarriers in other sectors such as culture and sports.AUTOS: China's most globally high-profile and successfulcarmaker, Geely, is forecasting flat sales this year, a sharpslowdown from 2018 as the country's giant auto market struggleswith slowing economic growth and more cautious consumers.RATES: "The central government has already started toencourage local governments to resume and speed up majorprojects, as evident in accelerating project approvals by theNDRC in October," analysts at Societe Generale said in a note."More RRR cuts is a foregone conclusion and we argue thatthe PBoC should begin to lower interest rates."TRADE: China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that thelatest round of trade talks with the United States hadconcluded, with the results to be released soon. GRASBERG: Exports of copper concentrate from Indonesia'sGrasberg mine, the world's second-largest copper mine, areexpected to drop to 200,000 tonnes this year from around 1.2million tonnes in 2018. TECHNICALS: Copper is testing resistance at the 21-daymoving average, currently around $6,008. A break above could seemomentum pick up for a test of $6,110, where the 50- and 100-daymoving averages appear to be converging.
PRICES: Aluminium slipped 0.6 percent to $1,852.5 atonne, zinc rose 0.3 percent to $2,492, lead climbed 0.1 percent to $1,971, tin gained 0.6 percent to$20,065 and nickel added 0.6 percent to $11,250.
<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Top Base and Precious Metals Analysis - GFMS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Pratima Desai; additional reporting by Tom Daly;editing by Louise Heavens and Jane Merriman)