Most industrial metals fell in early Asian trade on Monday after weak U.S. manufacturing data offered further evidence of a slowdown in economic growth early in the first quarter, while investors waited for clues as to when the Sino-U.S. trade war will end. The South China Morning Post reported on Saturday that a summit to end the trade row may be pushed back to June.
FUNDAMENTALS
* COPPER: Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was flat at $6,430 a tonne by 0200 GMT, after closing up 0.4 percent in the previous session. The most-traded May copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange added 0.6 percent to 49,220 yuan ($7,328.44) a tonne.
* VEDANTA: Vedanta Ltd on Friday named metals industry veteran Pankaj Kumar as Sterlite Copper chief executive, amid struggles to reopen its smelter in southern India that was shut after police killed 13 demonstrators protesting against the plant.
* CHINA: China's refined copper output in January and February rose by 6.3 percent year-on-year to 1.34 million tonnes, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Friday. On a daily basis, output was around 22,712 tonnes, down 16.1 percent from December.
* OTHER METALS: London nickel and zinc both slipped 0.5 percent, while tin was flat and lead nudged up 0.3 percent. In Shanghai, lead fell further, dropping 1.6 percent, while zinc dipped 1.1 percent.
* U.S.: U.S. manufacturing output fell for a second straight month in February and factory activity in New York state was weaker than expected.
* SANCTIONS: Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska sued the United States on Friday, alleging that it had overstepped its legal bounds in imposing sanctions on him and made him the "latest victim" in the U.S. probe into Moscow's alleged election interference.
* VTB: The investment banking unit of Russia's VTB has expanded its base metals and precious trading divisions with new hires in Switzerland and China, VTB Capital said in a statement.- Reuters-