March copper futures are expected to open floor trading around half of a penny per pound lower Thursday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The metal consolidated some of its recent gains in London trading, as some participants booked profits on the recent run-up. Sentiment was described as cautiously favorable for the short term but with the market anxiously awaiting Friday's U.S. nonfarm payrolls. In other markets that have the potential to affect metals in the short term, the euro is down slightly to $1.2839 from $1.2849 late Wednesday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the March S&P 500 futures are down 6.20 points to 823.60. March crude oil is down 17 cents to $40.15 a barrel in overnight activity. U.S. economic data Thursday include: - Fourth-quarter revised nonfarm productivity and unit labor costs due out at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT), forecast to be up 2% and 3%, respectively. - First-time weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EST (1330 GMT), expected to rise 2,000 to 590,000. December factory orders at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), expected to fall 3.4%. In New York Wednesday, copper futures remained in their consolidation pattern but are creeping toward the upper end in technically oriented trading and on signs that some of the recent economic data are improved from December, although they remains weak, analysts said. March copper rose 0.90 cent to settle at $1.5310 per pound. Inventories of copper stored in London Metal Exchange warehouses rose 2,650 metric tons Thursday, leaving them at 502,600. The most recent Comex inventory data, released late Wednesday afternoon, were down 100 short tons at 3,686 short tons.

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