JP Morgan Chase & Co (JPM)

[JimsZ]

JPMorgan Chase Nearly Doubles Commodities Trading
Published: Friday, 6 May 2011 | 3:07 PM ET Text Size By: John Carney
Senior Editor, CNBC.com


CNBC.com
JP Morgan Chase
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The size of JPMorgan Chase’s trading portfolio of physical commodities nearly doubled from the first quarter of last year to the most recent quarter, according to filings with the SEC.

JPMorgan [JPM 44.72 -0.32 (-0.71%) ] said it had owned in its trading book of physical commodities worth around $19.5 billion as of March 31, 2011. That contrasts with just $10.5 billion for the first quarter of 2010.

Most of that growth came during the first quarter. At the end of last year, JP Morgan said it had $12 billion in physical commodities.

The commodity derivatives book is also growing. For the first quarter, the bank said it had $12.8 billion of commodity derivative assets, compared with $6.5 billion last year.

JPMorgan’s liabilities for commodities derivatives grew at an almost startling pace. In the first quarter of this year, it says it had $11.3 billion of liabilities for commodities derivatives. The year before, that number was just $2.7 billion.