NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--December copper futures are expected to open floor trading around 6 cents higher Tuesday, based on electronic activity ahead of the pit session on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In overnight activity, the dollar's slide to a near one-year low pushed base metals higher on the London Metal Exchange. Equity markets, crude oil and gold were all higher - a swift reversal to the short-term outlook which a day earlier looked shaky. In recent trading in other markets that have the potential to impact metals in the short term, the euro was up to $1.4786. In screen trading ahead of the pit open, the December S&P 500 futures were up 7.6 points. October crude was up $1.08 in overnight activity. The two-Day FOMC meeting begins Tuesday, with an interest rate announcement expected around 2:15 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT) on Wednesday. In New York Monday, copper futures erased slight losses from inventory builds and a stronger dollar Monday as the metal bounced off of technical price-chart support and the greenback eased from the day's highs. December copper rose 2.05 cents to settle at $2.805. Inventories of copper stored in London Metal Exchange warehouses fell 50 metric tons Tuesday, leaving them at 331,775. The most recent Comex inventory data, released late Monday, were unchanged at 53,122 short tons.

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