Only nickel bucked the trend to end $250 higher.
"We've had no news today, and although prices have been under pressure for most of the day from light technical and small-scale CTA selling, a bit of short-covering at the close clawed back some of the losses," one LME trader said.
Copper ended the day at $2,815 a tonne, down $1 from Friday's kerb close, however after Monday's close copper had firmed to $2.825/29 by 1640 GMT.
"Copper has picked up since the close as the short-covering continued," the trader said.
Tightness remained a feature of the market with the cash-to- three-months spread bid at $100 backwardation.
"We're not seeing a tremendous amount of volume. People won't be interested in copper unless we can break $2,850 on the upside or $2,750 on the down," a second trader said.
"Even if we do get to $2,900 I don't think it will stay there for long," he added.
Aluminium was down $1 at $1,695. Nickel ended the day at $13,900, up $250.
"Nickel came under a bit of technical selling early on, but, like copper, short covering pushed it back up," the first trader said.
Lead fell $16 to $865 and cash-threes tightness eased to $77/82 backwardation from above $80 on Friday.
A third trader said cash to August was $35 backwardation while August-September was $30 backwardation.
Zinc lost $2 to $1,040 while tin was indicated at $8,750/800 from $8,800/850.