The base metals were mostly lower on Monday. Copper held onto Friday’s close until the late pre-dawn hours, but then was off sharply, bottoming near $1.75 at mid-morning before rallying to a finish at $1.828/lb., down 6½ cents from Friday.

The base metals were all off to the races on Wednesday. Copper blasted back over the $2 mark, rising from the pre-dawn hours to past noon before easing a bit and finishing at $2.0678/lb., up 14¾ cents. Nickel followed a similar path, cresting above $6 before pulling back to close at $5.8559/lb., up 61¼ cents.

“Investors are taking losses of up to 90% in the $1.2 trillion market for collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) tied to corporate credit,” reports Bloomberg. Much of the losses have been triggered by the failure of Lehman Brothers and Icelandic bank.

The Misery Index is set to make a comeback in Britain. It’s a fair bet that only those of you who remember the 1990s recession will have much idea of what I’m talking about, because that was the last time anyone spent any time discussing it. So what is it?

It was a good day for the base metals Wednesday as copper, zinc, nickel, and lead all rose, leaving aluminum as the only metal to fall on the day’s trading. Copper rose steadily for much of the day, reaching an intraday high of over $3.55/lb. A late-morning sell-off reduced the metal’s gains, however, as copper finished up only ½ cents, at $3.5042/lb.

The base metals were mixed on Friday. Copper was flat until the late morning, then shot upward, peaking around noon before flattening out after that to finish at $3.6656/lb., up 5 cents.

When gold was going for $300 an ounce and oil for $25 a barrel, it was easy to know where to put your money.

The base metals were mostly in positive territory on Friday. Copper struggled mightily to turn in a positive day yesterday, rallying twice off of steep drops, and it eventually succeeded, finishing at $3.6679/lb., up 2 2/3 cents.

Life’s about to get much tougher…for all of us…It’s that R-word again. Loose talk of a ‘recession’ has been bandied about for some time, particularly amongst those of us who keep a keen eye on what’s happening in both the money markets and the high street.

Outside of nickel, the base metals were all on fire on Friday. Copper rose straight from the pre-dawn hours until the late morning, only then coming off its intraday highs to finish at $3.866/lb., up nearly 8 cents.