The base metals were mixed on Wednesday. Copper traded within a tight 4-cent range through the day, finishing near the lower end at $1.5875/lb., down a penny and a quarter.

Profit taking was the name of the game during Tuesday trading on the Canadian markets as investors position themselves ahead of the third quarter earnings season. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange gave back 4.44%, while the TSX Gold Index fell 9% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, lost 1.58%, with the declining issuers out pacing the advancers by a 471 to 351 margin on volume of 142 million shares traded.

The base metals were mostly deep in the red on Tuesday. Copper fell from the pre-dawn hours to the New York open, tried to rally, but gave it up to finish just off its intraday low at $2.0453/lb., down 11 1/3 cents. Nickel was down in the pre-dawn hours, shot much higher to the mid-morning point, but then tumbled back to break-even, closing at $4.6849/lb., up just over a penny.

The base metals were all solidly in positive territory on Friday. Copper rose from the pre-dawn hours straight through to mid-morning, peaking at $3.27, then tailed off but still finished with a big gain at $3.2379/lb., up nearly 8½ cents.

The base metals mostly posted slight gains on Wednesday. Copper was at the low end of a 4-cent range for most of the day, until a late morning rally pushed it into the black, with a finish at $3.1402/lb., up more than 2¾ cents.

The base metals were all in the red on Friday. Copper was all over the place, but stayed between $3.75 and $3.79, finishing near the lower part of the range, at $3.762/lb., down a penny and two-thirds.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is caught between a rock and a hard place right now. Sure, he would prefer that you focus on “core inflation,” since it excludes sharply rising food and oil prices. But we all have to eat and we all consume energy.

The base metals, except for nickel, were all in the black on Friday. Copper started up in the pre-dawn hours and peaked around mid-morning at nearly $3.87, but then dropped off before finishing in positive territory at $3.8335/lb., up 4 cents.

If this critical resource disappears, it could send the commodities market spiraling into a catastrophic domino effect.

Mining investors take note… If copper, zinc, nickel, and tin prices remain close to current levels, these miners will make a ton of money this year.