via Yahoo:
The London Metal Exchange revealed a surprising mix-up last week at a warehouse in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.
An operator for the warehouse weighed bags that were thought to contain 54 metric tons of nickel, only to find that they were filled with stones, according to The Wall Street Journal.
It appears that JPMorgan Chase is the unlucky owner of those bags, the Journal said on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Had they contained nickel, the bags would have been worth $1.3 million at current prices, representing 0.14% of nickel inventories, Bloomberg reported. While that means the mix-up will have a relatively minor impact on metal markets, it does call the security of the LME’s contracts into question. “In an industry riddled with scandals, the LME’s contracts are viewed as unquestionably safe,” Bloomberg said.