METALS-Copper strong as U.S. data supports demand outlook

* U.S. employers cut fewer jobs than expected in February

 * Comments from China ease concerns about monetary policy

 * Downward pressure ahead as Chile miners resume output

 * Coming Up: Data light until Friday's U.S. retail sales

 (Recasts, updates New York prices, adds byline, dateline)

 By Carole Vaporean and Rebekah Curtis

 NEW YORK/LONDON, March 5 (Reuters) - Copper rose 3 percent on
Friday and finished the week with solid gains, as investors read the
better-than-forecast U.S. jobs data as a sign that demand for the
industrial metal could continue to improve and as the euro continued
to rally on the dollar.

 Earlier, comments from China calmed investor concerns that
monetary tightening in the world's top metal consumer could
jeopardize its demand.

 Benchmark copper for three-month delivery CMCU3 on the London
Metal Exchange closed at $7,545 a tonne in rings from $7,370 on
Thursday, and hit a session high of $7,610.

 Most active copper for May delivery HGK0 closed 4.20 cents, or
1.24 percent, higher at $3.4175 per lb on the New York Mercantile
Exchange's COMEX division.

 Western demand for the metal remains weak, and economic data is
improving slowly. But data showing U.S. employers cut a
smaller-than-expected 36,000 jobs in February, mainly due to severe
weather conditions across the United States, bolstered investor
sentiment. [ID:nN04107795]

 Also lifting sentiment, China's Premier Wen Jiabao said the
country would stick to an appropriately easy monetary stance and an
active fiscal policy. [ID:nTOE6230AE]

 This helped sooth concerns about Chinese demand, which is
showing signs of softening as the country has moved to a less
accommodative monetary policy to cool rapid growth.

 "The fundamentals have generally been improving," said David
Wilson, an analyst at Societe Generale.

 "There's a little bit more optimism that China is going to
continue to be a major metals consumer," he added.

 "People are little a bit more positive on comments that the
Chinese premier was making about maintaining spending, to maintain
economic growth."

 Copper is up just 2 percent so far this year, whereas intense
demand from China helped the metal, used in power and construction,
surge 140 percent in 2009. [ID:nTOE62301C].

 STOCKPILE DECLINE

 Also supporting prices, copper stocks at LME warehouses fell
1,075 tonnes to 543,150 tonnes -- levels not seen since early
February -- maintaining a recent downward trend.

 In Shanghai, copper warehouse inventories fell by 858 tonnes, or
by 1 percent, from a week earlier. [ID:nBJD003551]

 Copper's gains follow a five-week peak in prices on Monday after
a weekend earthquake forced top producer Chile to temporarily shut
down nearly a quarter of its mine capacity. [ID:nCHILE]

 But as miners restart production this support is fading.
[ID:nN03242555] [ID:nWLB9145]

 "We still would be cautious about metals here, as we think
copper has more work to do on the downside in that it has yet to
give up most of this week's earthquake-induced gains," Edward Meir,
an analyst at MF Global said in a note.

 Aluminium CMAL3 closed at $2,230 from $2,215 and earlier
reached $2,260, its highest since late January. LME stocks of the
metal, used in transport and packaging, slipped 6,850 tonnes to 4.5
million tonnes.

 A large portion of those aluminium stocks are tied up in finance
deals to release cash for producers and to earn banks higher returns
than in money markets. [ID:nGEE5BA277]

 Among other base metals, steel making ingredient nickel CMNI3
traded at $22,395 from $22,300, while battery material lead CMPB3
was at $2,230 from $2,170.

 Zinc CMZN3 traded at $2,349 a tonne from $2,259 and tin
CMSN3 was last quoted at $17,400/17,405 from $17,250.

Metal Prices at 1718 GMT
Metal          Last      Change  Pct Move   End 2009   Ytd Pct

                                                         move
 COMEX Cu       340.00        3.95     +1.18     332.75      2.18
 LME Alum      2225.00       10.00     +0.45    2230.00     -0.22
 LME Cu        7500.00      130.00     +1.76    7375.00      1.69
 LME Lead      2210.00       40.00     +1.84    2432.00     -9.13
 LME Nickel   22230.00      -70.00     -0.31   18525.00     20.00
 LME Tin      17250.00        0.00     +0.00   16950.00      1.77
 LME Zinc      2332.00       73.00     +3.23    2560.00     -8.91
 SHFE Alu     16730.00       45.00     +0.27   17160.00     -2.51
 SHFE Cu*     59750.00      430.00     +0.72   59900.00     -0.25
 SHFE Zin     18430.00      240.00     +1.32   21195.00    -13.05 **
1st contract month for COMEX copper * 3rd contract month for SHFE
AL, CU and ZN SHFE ZN began trading on 26/3/07
 (Additional reporting by Michael Taylor in London; Editing by
Marguerita Choy)