July copper futures are expected to open floor trading around 5 cents a pound higher Wednesday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Copper bounced back from some of its recent weakness in London trading overnight with the help of a stronger tone in equities but weakness in the U.S. dollar, plus another large fall in London Metal Exchange warehouse inventories. Risk appetite improved, prompting some short covering in the metal. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is up to $1.3260 from $1.3149 late Tuesday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are up 7.30 points to 859.10. June crude oil is up 86 cents to $50.78 a barrel in overnight activity. A two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee winds up Wednesday, with a statement expected around 2:15 p.m. EDT (1615 GMT). In the meantime, the two main U.S. reports are advance first-quarter gross domestic product at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), with a contraction of 4.6% forecast, and weekly energy-inventory data at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT). In New York Tuesday, copper futures finished lower on profit-taking, with ongoing worries about economic fallout from the swine flu cited as a catalyst and with some minor chart damage occurring. July copper fell 6.90 cents to settle at $1.9165 per pound. Inventories of copper stored in LME warehouses fell 8,825 metric tons Wednesday, leaving them at 411,450. The most recent Comex inventory data, released late Tuesday afternoon, were steady at 48,056 short tons.

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