July copper futures are expected to open floor trading around 6 cents a pound higher Monday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. London copper prices traded to an eight-month high due to a combination of U.S. dollar weakness, an improvement to China's manufacturing data and speculative short covering, analysts said. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is up to $1.4192 from $1.4160 late Friday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are up 11.70 points to 929.80. July crude oil is up $1.41 to $67.72 a barrel in overnight activity. In New York Friday, weakness in the U.S. dollar and chart-based buying enabled copper futures to hit their strongest level in three weeks. July copper rose 6.05 cents to settle at $2.1975 per pound. U.S. economic data Monday include: - April personal income and spending due out at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), with income forecast down 0.2% and spending down 0.1%; - April construction spending at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), expected to be down 0.9%; - the May manufacturing index from the Institute for Supply Management at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT), forecast to edge up to 41.5 from 40.1 the prior month; and - May auto sales, scheduled to be released over the course of the day. Other major reports this week include pending-home sales on Tuesday, the ADP employment report, factory orders and ISM non-manufacturing survey on Wednesday, jobless claims and productivity costs Thursday, followed by the monthly employment report on Friday. Inventories of copper stored in London Metal Exchange warehouses fell 300 metric tons Monday, leaving them at 311,975. The most recent Comex inventory data, released late Friday afternoon, were down 18 short tons at 55,664 short tons.

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