July copper futures are expected to open floor trading around 7 cents lower Monday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In overnight activity, base metals on the London Metal Exchange traded lower in Europe weighed by lower equities. Traders and analysts said the price rise this year doesn't yet seem supported by demand fundamentals. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is down to $1.3583 from $1.3632 late Friday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are down 10.90 points to 913.80. June crude is down $1.50 to $57.13 in overnight activity. U.S. economic reports on Monday include the April Conference Board Employment Trends Index at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke is scheduled to speak Monday night at an Atlanta Fed conference in Jekyll Island, Ga. In New York Friday, copper futures finished modestly softer on profit-taking that set in as the market approached resistance at the highs from mid-April, particularly after a report showing further job losses in the U.S. Most-active July copper fell 1.90 cents to settle at $2.1455. Inventories of copper stored in London Metal Exchange warehouses fell 3,825 metric tons Monday, leaving them at 385,175. The most recent Comex inventory data, released late Friday afternoon, were unchanged at 48,056 short tons.

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