May copper futures are expected to open floor trading around 3 cents a pound lower Thursday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Copper and other base metals slipped in London trading overnight on profit-taking, encouraged in part by first-quarter Chinese gross-domestic-product growth of 6.1%, which was around consensus forecasts but nevertheless the weakest level since 1992. In other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro is down to $1.3178 from $1.3227 late Wednesday afternoon. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the June S&P 500 futures are down 3.70 points to 844.80. May crude oil is up 31 cents to $49.56 a barrel in overnight activity. U.S. economic data Thursday include: - first-time weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), forecast to rise 9,000 to 663,000; - March housing starts, at 8:30 a.m. EDT (1230 GMT), expected to fall 7.4% to an annual rate of 540,000; and - the Philadelphia Fed's April manufacturing index, with the headline number forecast at minus 32.8 compared to minus 35 the prior month. In New York Wednesday, copper futures closed higher mainly in reaction to a large drawdown in London Metal Exchange inventories of the metal. May copper rose 8.40 cents to settle at $2.1990 per pound. In Thursday's report, inventories of copper stored in London Metal Exchange warehouses fell 5,200 metric tons, leaving them at 475,200. The most recent Comex inventory data, released late Wednesday afternoon, rose 64 short tons Thursday, leaving them at 47,500.

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