Metals brokers are enjoying a surge in trading profits as they exploit an exodus of banks from commodities markets. Marex Spectron and Sucden Financial, ring-dealers on the London Metal Exchange’s open-outcry trading floor, last week reported a jump in earnings. As the investment banks that came to dominate during the commodities supercycle continue to pull out, the brokerages are profiting from renewed volatility in markets. “There’s an ongoing retreat by banks from our space, and as they’ve retreated their clients have needed a home,” Marex Spectron Chief Executive Officer Ian Lowitt said by phone from London. ... (full story)