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