The three-month LME copper futures contract was trading at $3,890/$3,897 per tonne, up 0.4 percent from the London kerb close of $3,878 on Friday.
But the contract was off late post-kerb and New York levels above $3,900. "The market tends to be thin during the LME convention week and that makes prices more volatile, so we don't want to hold large positions now," said a trader at a Japanese trading house.
"The market will look into the level of stocks to determine sentiment, but prices are likely to be rangebound this week." The LME annual convention is scheduled to take place in London this week. On Friday, the LME said it would add more plastic futures and extend electronic trading next year. An easing of concerns over possible supply shortages could be pressuring the market, as members of the Canadian Auto Workers union ratified a three-year labour contract to end a four-week strike at Falconbridge Ltd's Kidd Creek facility in northern Ontario.
Kidd Creek in Timings is targeted to produce about 130,000 tonnes of refined copper and about 135,000 tonnes of zinc this year. That's about 0.7 percent of global copper production and 1 percent of world zinc output.
Slight falls in copper futures in Shanghai weighed on LME prices. The most active January Shanghai copper futures fell 40 yuan from Friday's settlement to 36,490 yen.
Zinc was supported as a supply warning kept fund operators keen to hold onto long positions. The metal was buoyed on Friday by news of a labour dispute at Omicron's Baleen plant in Belgium, with germanium and cobalt production also affected as the country was caught up in a national strike.
The key three-month zinc contract was trading at $1,540/$1,546 per tonne, little changed from Friday's $1,543. Key three-month LME aluminium was trading at $1,950/$1,955 per tonne, little changed from $1,950 in London.
The most active January Shanghai aluminium contract was unchanged at 17,080 yuan. Three-month LME nickel futures were steady at $11,925/$12,025 per tonne from $12,000 in London. LME tin futures were at $6,200/$6,300 per tonne against $6,300 in London. Lead futures were steady at $960/$965 against $964 in London.