by Pratima Desai
Reuters.com
A first glance at aluminum prices on the London Metal Exchange yields few surprises, yet a closer look often reveals anomalies caused by one market participant holding large amounts of metal.
Sources at commodity trading houses, warehouses, producers, brokers and banks say recently one such company is U.S. bank JPMorgan. Others have done so in past.
JPMorgan declined to comment.
“There are no position limits (on aluminum contracts) as such on the LME, if you are financing physical material there are no limits,” a metals analyst said. “The LME is a physical market, no rules have been broken.”