U.S. federal energy regulators on Tuesday alleged traders at French energy company Total SA manipulated the natural gas market in the southwest United States between June 2009 and June 2012. The staff alleged the scheme involved making “largely uneconomic trades for physical natural gas during bidweek designed to move indexed market prices in a way that benefited the company’s related positions.” This is the latest case in which FERC has alleged manipulation of the power or natural gas markets using loss leader trading – in this case physical trades – to benefit a position in a benchmark or other financial index. In recent years, FERC has alleged violations of similar types of trading manipulation by JPMorgan Chase & Co, which paid $285 […]