* U.S. payrolls data release is due on Friday
* Copper is up 5.3% so far this week
* Discount for LME cash over 3-month copper at record high
* Zinc heads for biggest weekly growth since January 2023

By Polina Devitt
       LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Copper prices fell in London
on Friday, stepping away from a 14-month high hit in the
previous session as the market focused on crucial U.S. jobs data
due later in the day.
    Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME)
        fell 0.3% to $9,332.5 per metric ton by 1000 GMT. Copper
prices hit $9,397.5, the highest since January, 2023 on
Thursday.
    "Copper has done a lot recently and the rise has been rapid,
so even if it continues going up in the short term, downside
risks are starting to build," said Dan Smith, head of research
at Amalgamated Metal Trading.
    Better-than-expected manufacturing activity data from top
metals consumer China and hopes for rate cuts in the U.S. and
Europe boosted growth-dependent industrial metals earlier this
week. Chinese markets were closed on April 4-5.
    "The seasonality charts of previous years indicate that
normally 9th week of a year is the strongest one for copper, and
then it tends to go down closer to summer. We are now in the
14th week," Smith said.
    Chinese copper factories typically slow down over the
northern hemisphere summer months. 
    The discount for the LME cash over the benchmark three-month
copper contract  hit a record high of $116.94 on
Thursday, which, according to Smith, supported the idea that
copper prices were getting closer to their peak.
    From the technical point of view, copper is moving at a
Fibonacci retracement level, however its 5.3%-growth this week
brought it above major moving averages with the nearest, 21-day
moving average currently at $8,914.
    Meanwhile, aluminium         rose 0.3% to $2,450.50, lead
        fell 1.3% to $2,110, while nickel         was steady at
$17,690. Tin         added 1.0% to $28,920 after hitting the
highest since July 2023 of $29,045.
    Zinc         shed 0.3%, to $2,638. It was heading for a 8.3%
weekly gain, its biggest rise since January, 2023.

 (Reporting by Polina Devitt in London; additional reporting by
Mai Nguyen in Hanoi; editing by David Evans)