The base metals were nearly all in the red on Thursday. Copper just can’t seem to hold the $4 level, as it shot to $4.10 in the pre-dawn hours but fell steadily from there, finishing just off its intraday low at $3.9701/lb., down 3 2/3 cents.

The short sellers appear to be dwindling. This morning the Financial Times reports that global stock markets continued to rally.

The rally comes despite heavy writedowns from Swiss banking giant UBS.

The uncertainty about the markets’ direction reflected the fact that stocks rose after another round of bank writedowns and capital-raisings – developments that might have been expected to send prices lower.