The base metals were mixed on Tuesday. Copper pushed higher, reaching $3.22 in the pre-dawn hours, but then toppled through the New York day, just coming off its intraday lows to finish at $3.1307/lb., down more than 4¾ cents.

Nickel also peaked during the pre-dawn hours, then traded sideways in New York, closing at $7.5546/lb., down 3½ cents. Zinc was little changed, ending at $0.793/lb., up less than a tenth of a cent. Aluminum continued to slide, shedding three-quarters of a cent, to $1.1069/lb., while lead came well off its session highs but still wound up with a gain of more than a penny, at $0.8991/lb.

Copper slipped lower amid continuing questions about the big bailout. The new, weak home sales data also played in, as housing is the number one market for the metal, about 400 pounds of which goes into the average American home.

Because “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel for the housing market … it’s feeding into this whole idea that prospects for the U.S. economy don’t look very bright,” said Michael Gross, of OptionSellers.com in Tampa, Florida..

While there may be a general feeling of being in limbo among traders, as Congress debates the Paulson/Bernanke plan, others see it as not making a whole lot of difference, considering the spreading recession, in the longer run.

“It’s obvious we’re in the midst of a world economic crisis, and demand for industrial metals … copper, zinc, nickel, tin, aluminum, are all due to fall,” said Zachary Oxman, of Wisdom Financial.

That fear was intensified this week with news that corporate sentiment in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, deteriorated for the fourth month running, amid weak data from other eurozone economies.

“Any correction we have seen is merely an upward blip in a downtrend,” said GFMS Managing Director Neil Buxton.

And high aluminum stocks are weighing down that metal, “so we will not see a support to prices tomorrow or the day after,” said Commerzbank analyst Barbara Lambrecht. However, “In the medium term, we think of higher aluminium prices — they are now very close to production costs so there might be close downs of smelters.”

Source: Base metals spin wheels -  Weak home sales data hurt copper.