The base metals were mixed on Wednesday. Copper traded within a tight 4-cent range through the day, finishing near the lower end at $1.5875/lb., down a penny and a quarter.

Nickel traded choppily, with a bit of an up bias late, to close at $4.6644/lb., up a bit more than a penny. Zinc was down early, but recovered to end at its intraday high of $0.507/lb., up a penny and three-quarters. Aluminum was weak, dropping nearly a penny and a half, to $0.8349/lb., while lead plunged in the afternoon hours after most of the day in the green, settling at $0.5656/lb., down two-thirds of a cent.

Copper was weak on both bad economic numbers out of Europe, and on ballooning stockpiles.

European industrial production declined 2.4% in September, year over year, marking the biggest drop since February 2002, according to the European Union’s statistics office. From August, production sagged by 1.6%. The