The base metals were all flashing red again on Wednesday. Copper hit the skids in the late pre-dawn hours and fell through to mid-morning, after which it caught some buying, but not enough to return it to break-even as it finished at $1.5409/lb., down 4 1/3 cents.

Nickel declined pretty steadily straight through, closing at its intraday low of $4.0574/lb., down 14¾ cents. Zinc had a series of sharp ups and downs, ending with a loss of over three-quarters of a cent, at $0.5102/lb. Aluminum sagged continuously for a second straight day, settling at its intraday low of $0.7064/lb., down 3½ cents, while lead also plunged to its intraday low of $0.4368/lb., down 4½ cents.

Copper slipped to its lowest level since July 2005 on, no surprise, global economic concerns.

For a change, inventories monitored by the LME were off, but not by much. Stockpiles fell 250 metric tons on Wednesday, to

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The base metals were mostly lower on Tuesday. Copper was in the green until late in the pre-dawn hours, then fell into the red and never quite recovered, finishing at $1.6362/lb., down nearly 2½ cents.

Nickel declined from the pre-dawn hours until the noon hour, rallied into the afternoon but not enough to take it back to break-even as it closed at $4.5888/lb., down just under 7 cents. Zinc pushed slowly northward throughout the day, ending just off its intraday high at $0.5603/lb., up more than three-quarters of a cent. Aluminum peaked in the late pre-dawn hours, then dropped straight through the day, just coming off its intraday low at $0.7935/lb., down a third of a cent, while lead traded flat until the afternoon, during which it lost a penny and a quarter, to $0.5295/lb.

Copper’s modest uptrend failed to hold, as traders’ pessimism evidently reasserted itself and they sold into the

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The base metals were mostly deep in the red on Tuesday. Copper fell from the pre-dawn hours to the New York open, tried to rally, but gave it up to finish just off its intraday low at $2.0453/lb., down 11 1/3 cents. Nickel was down in the pre-dawn hours, shot much higher to the mid-morning point, but then tumbled back to break-even, closing at $4.6849/lb., up just over a penny.

Zinc declined steadily all day, barely coming off its intraday low to end at $0.502/lb., down 3¼ cents. Aluminum was off sharply, dropping nearly 3 cents, to $0.9116/lb., while lead was also hammered, shedding 3 cents to $0.6086/lb.

Copper led the industrial metals mostly lower, as fears about the Chinese economy remained in the forefront. The metal dipped briefly below the $2/lb. mark for the first time since December of 2005.

Edward Meir, of MF Global, stated flat out that copper’s slide is

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