Barack Obama and John McCain are scrambling to respond to the financial crisis on Wall Street. Both are calling for greater oversight and regulation of the banking sector. But neither is inspiring confidence in his ability to deal with the crisis. Few will admit it – and fewer still in Washington – but the answer to the current crisis does not lie in greater regulation. In fact, as Frank Holmes argues in The Daily Reckoning, legislation such as Sarbenes-Oxley is making matters worse…

The base metals were all in positive territory on Tuesday. Copper started up in the pre-dawn hours and rose straight through to late morning, coming just off its intraday high late to finish at $3.9782/lb., up 6 cents.

Gold futures have shed over 4% so far today in what MarkeWatch is calling “a broad-based commodities sell-off.”

According to the site, “gold for June delivery tumbled $41.80, or 4.5%, to $879.70 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Other metals futures were also sharply lower, with platinum selling off 7%.”

Read on at MarketWatch.com