Winter Park, Florida 06/05/2016 - Copper futures erased earlier losses on Friday thanks to some pre-weekend short-covering and a bounce in oil.
Copper for July delivery on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange ended the day unchanged at $2.1540 per pound. Trade ranged from $2.1355 to $2.167 amid moderate turnover.
"[In the base metals], end of the week short covering emerged in the later stages, which took London Metal Exchange copper back up to $4,820 per tonne as light stops were triggered," Sucden said. Three-month LME copper ended $4,810 per tonne, up $25 on Thursday's close.
This week's key data point, US non-farm payrolls, fell short of forecasts, lowering the probability of the Federal Reserve raising interest rates any time soon.
The US economy added 160,000 jobs in April - the fewest in seven months and missing expectations of around 200,000 - while the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent. The February total was revised downward to 233,000 from 245,000 and March to 208,000 from 215,000.
Still, average hourly earnings increased eight cents to $25.53 following an increase of six cents in March.
"There's just not enough strength [in the US economy], and it's unfortunate that it's coming at a time when we are getting numbers out of China that are not as good as the previous month," CNBC's Jim Cramer said.
"It's now looking like some of the commodity markets were juiced up by excessive Chinese fund buying. The scenario that justified a big run in the industrials is not really intact any more," he added.
In the wider-markets, the dollar was was near unchanged at 1.1404 against the euro, while the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 reversed its losses to last trade up 0.34 percent and 0.23 percent.
As for other commodities, light sweet crude (WTI) crude oil futures were up 25 cents, or 0.56 percent, at $44.56 per barrel, which marks a healthy reversal from the session low of $43.54.
Traders will now await Chinese data over the weekend - the trade balance and the dollar-denominated trade balance are tentatively scheduled.