By Allen Sykora Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Copper futures remain slightly lower on continued dollar strength amid European debt concerns, although the metal recovered most of its losses after U.S. employment data. Around 8:56 a.m. EST (1356 GMT), most-active March copper is down 0.70 cent, or 0.24%, at $2.8720 per pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract earlier hit an overnight low of $2.8110, its weakest level since mid-October. "Copper hasn't really done much on its own on anything copper-specific in a long time," said one trader. "If you look at a five- and 60-minute chart, copper, gold, silver, the S&Ps are amazingly aligned together. "We have this breakdown in the macro picture for the last two weeks and it has continued." There has been a bearish shift for the short to medium term spurred by fears over Greece's ability to service its debt and the health of other southern European countries, said a research note from Standard Bank. This enabled the dollar to strengthen further overnight, with the euro hitting a $1.3648 low, its weakest level since May. A stronger greenback pressures dollar-denominated commodities by making them more expensive in other currencies. The single European currency has gained modestly, however, since U.S. jobs data this morning, and copper pared its losses. A copper trader said some participants, who previously sold, bought in order to cover positions after the jobs data. Some of this could have been simply squaring ahead of the weekend, he said. January non-farm payrolls fell 20,000 when the consensus forecast was for an unchanged reading. However, the jobless rate fell to 9.7% from 10% in December, when the expectation was for 10.1%. Meanwhile, the decline in December payrolls was revised to 150,000 from 85,000. -By Allen Sykora, Dow Jones Newswires; 541-318-8765; allen.sykora@dowjones.com

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