Copper prices slide

Reuters

London

Copper dropped on Friday after U.S. jobs data kept alive speculation about a U.S. rate hike later this year, boosting the dollar ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday in China.

The dollar index bounced back from a week of heavy losses after a mixed U.S. jobs report, which included a fall in the unemployment rate to 4.9 percent, the lowest since February 2008,  A stronger dollar makes commodities priced in the U.S. currency more expensive for buyers outside the United States.

"That dollar weakness earlier this week really buoyed the metals complex and now some of that is coming off. There's a bit of profit taking, closing out these long positions ahead of the weekend and the Chinese new year," said analyst Kash Kamal at broker Sucden Financial.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange closed down 1.2 percent at $4,630 a tonne, erasing similar gains in the previous session when prices hit the highest since Jan. 4 at $4,720 a tonne.