The base metals were all mired in the red on Friday. Copper declined from the pre-dawn hours straight through until mid-morning in New York, before leveling off for the rest of the day and finishing just off its intraday low at $3.1494/lb., down nearly 15½ cents.

Nickel cratered in the pre-dawn hours, then traded flat in New York, closing at $8.3733/lb., down 27½ cents. Zinc also fell off all day, ending at $0.773/lb., down 3¼ cents. Aluminum was much lower early, but rallied mid-morning to cut losses to less than a penny and a half, at $1.1768/lb., while lead plunged, dropping 5 and two-thirds cents, to $0.805/lb.

Copper plummeted on weak economic data out of the U.S., as well as stockpiles that rocketed higher.

Inventories monitored by the LME shot up by 18,775 metric tons, to 200,875 tons yesterday. The more than 10% increase was the biggest for a single day since August, 2005. Stocks are at their highest since January 8.

They were also up in Shanghai, where stocks increased 1,487 metric tons, or 8.4%, to 19,112 tons, following six consecutive weeks of declines.

Copper has now dropped by 27% since reaching its record high in May.

“There’s bad economic news for everybody around the world and demand is looking pretty shaky,” said Michael K. Smith, president of T&K Futures & Options in Port St. Lucie, Florida. “Copper and other industrial metals are going to get hammered.”

And, “People are just scared to death to be in the commodity game right now,” Smith continued. “Money has been leaving copper and other commodities for the last month and it doesn’t look like it’s coming back anytime soon.”

Source: Base Metals Savaged