By David Sheppard

(Reuters) – Large companies looking to hedge their exposure to rising energy costs are employing a larger number of banks to execute their commodity trades due to tighter credit markets, a survey released by Greenwich Associates showed on Wednesday.

The consultancy’s global survey of more than 300 large firms showed that their relationship with their lenders is now almost as important as the bank’s commodity market expertise, with airlines and large industrial companies putting an increasing premium on access to credit.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street’s biggest banks are locked in an increasingly frantic struggle with the Federal Reserve over the right to retain the jewels of their commodity trading empires: warehouses, storage tanks and other hard assets worth billions of dollars.

While the battle over proprietary trading and new derivatives regulations has taken place largely in public view since the 2008 financial crisis, the fight by JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to retain or expand their prized physical commodity operations – most acquired in only the past six years – has remained hidden.

NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s biggest banks
are locked in an increasingly frantic struggle with the Federal
Reserve over the right to retain the jewels of their commodity
trading empires: warehouses, storage tanks and other hard assets
worth billions of dollars.

While the battle over proprietary trading and new
derivatives regulations has taken place largely in public view
since the 2008 financial crisis, the fight by JPMorgan Chase
, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to
retain or expand their prized physical commodity operations -
most acquired in only the past six years – has remained hidden.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Blythe Masters, JPMorgan’s global head of commodities, has steered the bank’s expanded franchise to record revenues exceeding $2.8 billion in 2011, more than long-time industry leaders Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the three banks’ data showed this week.

The more than threefold surge in revenues marks a dramatic turnaround for British-born Masters, one of the top female executives on Wall Street, who came under pressure in 2010 as revenues fell following the acquisition of RBS Sempra’s large metals and energy trading desks, according to sources and company data.

NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) – Blythe Masters,
JPMorgan’s global head of commodities, has steered the bank’s
expanded franchise to record revenues exceeding $2.8 billion in
2011, more than long-time industry leaders Goldman Sachs and
Morgan Stanley, the three banks’ data showed this week.

The more than threefold surge in revenues marks a dramatic
turnaround for British-born Masters, one of the top female
executives on Wall Street, who came under pressure in 2010 as
revenues fell following the acquisition of RBS Sempra’s large
metals and energy trading desks, according to sources and
company data.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Electronic trading of U.S. oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange halted for more than an hour on Monday afternoon in one of the busiest periods of the day, forcing brokers to sprint for the open-outcry pits as prices settled.

In what some traders called one of the most disruptive glitches since the launch of parallel electronic trading about six years ago, the CME Group’s (CME.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Globex platform froze at 2:04 p.m. EST (1904 GMT), half an hour before the close. Some market watchers blamed the outage for a 50-cent jump in crude oil prices.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Electronic trading of U.S. oil futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange halted for more than an hour on Monday afternoon during one of the busiest periods of the day, forcing brokers to sprint for the open-outrcy pits as prices settled.

In what some traders said was one of the most disruptive glitches since parallel electronic trading was launched about six years ago, the CME Group’s (CME.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Globex platform froze at 2:04 p.m. EST (1904 GMT), half an hour before the close. Some market watchers blamed the outage for a 50-cent jump in crude oil prices.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Brent crude’s premium to U.S. oil could be poised for another record run after jumping 50 percent over the past week, as an expected build in Midwest inventories again exerts pressure on the U.S. benchmark.

The Brent-WTI spread, which measures the difference between London-based Brent and the U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI), has jumped past $19, up sharply from near $12 at the start of last week.

By Naveed Anjum and David Sheppard

(Reuters) – New investments in commodities almost ground to a halt last year, Barclays Capital said on Thursday, with inflows into the sector dropping almost 78 percent from 2010 to the lowest in nine years.

The move may indicate a shift in how investors are approaching the volatile asset class. Commodities saw an explosion in interest between 2005 and 2010, attracting the attention of critics and regulators who said the influx of cash may have played a role in inflating energy and food prices.

By David Sheppard and Jeanine Prezioso

(Reuters) – Sempra, the commodity trading powerhouse that boasted a decade-long profit streak before it was sold four years ago, is being reborn.

David Messer, who over two decades built the multibillion-dollar Sempra trading operation, is back in the game as CEO of Freepoint Commodities. The firm is re-hiring dozens of former Sempra employees and opening offices worldwide, pushing into oil and coal markets in the hope of capitalizing on the regulatory and salary travails facing Wall Street.