The base metals were mostly in the red on Monday. Copper fell below $3.87 in the pre-dawn hours, then moved steadily higher from there although it failed to return to break-even, finishing at $3.9442/lb., down 3½ cents from Friday. Nickel was also down early, but bucked the general trend by fighting its way back into positive territory, punching through the $13 mark before easing late in the day to close just below it at $12.9932/lb., up 22 cents. Zinc slipped from the black to the red around the noon hour, ending at $1.0208/lb., down more than a penny. Aluminum traded sideways after its pre-dawn lows, winding up at $1.3528/lb., down a bit under 2 cents, while lead also declined, dropping nearly 2 cents, to $1.3072/lb.

Copper continues to meet serious resistance at $4, as it fell short of that mark again yesterday, primarily on nervousness about the economy.

The unease wasn’t helped any by some disappointing quarterly results. Goldman Sachs analysts noted that first-quarter U.S. earnings reports got off to an “awful” start last week, with GE stunning investors as it posted a decline in profit, and Alcoa reporting that earnings plunged by 54%.

“Poor equity-market performance” is behind copper’s listlessness, wrote Michael Jansen, a London-based analyst at JPMorgan Securities. “Demand continues to remain weak, especially in the U.S.”

With the exception of nickel, the sector was off yesterday, leading Michael Widmer, metals analyst at Lehman Brothers, to say that, “Base metals are pretty weak, though they recovered some since this morning. Macroeconomic data that wasn’t as bad as many had thought may have contributed to that.” Widmer cited data showing industrial output in the eurozone increased more than expected in February.

And Ralph Preston, of Heritage West Financial in San Diego, California, said that, “The recovery from the overnight spike to $3.8155 is very bullish for the metal … As long as the copper stays above $3.85, the bulls are still in control.”

In company news, Teck Cominco made a complex move, reporting that it will pay $425 million to acquire Global Copper, in order to gain control of the Relincho copper/molybdenum mine in northern Chile.

Global’s copper assets in Argentina, however, will be spun out as a new TSX-listed mining play, to be called Lumina Copper, which will also hold a royalty in the Chilean mine. Global Copper has agreed not to solicit rival bids and there’s a $12.5-million break fee due to Teck if a better offer is received.