The base metals were all deep in the red on Tuesday. Copper had another day of incessant down, with each tiny upblip met with immediate selling, leading to a finish barely off its intraday low at $1.5997/lb., down 10 cents. Nickel followed a similar path, except that it didn’t manage to escape its intraday low, closing right there at $4.6531/lb., down 29 2/3 cents.

Zinc meandered around either side of 49 cents, ending up a half-cent, at $0.4893/lb. Aluminum was weak, dropping a penny and a half, to $0.8494/lb., while lead also plunged to its intraday low of $0.5724/lb., down nearly 3½ cents.

Copper tumbled to a three-year low as it led the sector downward amid—cue broken record—deepening gloom about the global economy.

The data are simply offering no relief. Among yesterday’s numbers, along with the October exports figure from China, the U.K. reported that home sales fell to the lowest level in at least three decades.

“Grim recessionary stats continue to roll in from all corners of the world,” wrote Edward Meir, of MF Global. “We do not expect to see any sustainable rallies resulting for a period of time.”

Putting a further damper on any hopes that China will show the way out of a worldwide recession, the vice president of the state-controlled China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association warns that China’s stimulus plan will only have a gradual effect on the country’s base metals industry.

Rising stockpiles are also playing in. Copper inventories monitored by the LME shot higher by 4,625 metric tons yesterday, to 265,475 tons. Stocks are up more than 27,000 tons already in November.

Adding to the carnage, the sharp drop in equities markets yesterday had a negative effect, as commodities tend to correlate with them.

Source: Base metals bomb -  China no longer seen as savior