Report: Goldman, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley's role in commodities creates risk, unfair trading

Three big Wall Street banks that have owned commodities such as aluminum exposed themselves to risk and sometimes manipulated prices in a way that raised costs for consumers, a Senate investigation has found.

The heavy involvement of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley in the business of storing and moving commodities like oil, aluminum, uranium and copper also gives them unfair trading advantages in financial markets, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Aluminum cans that hold beverages like soda or beer are held up as an example. The report says Goldman has used its stockpile of aluminum to cause delivery delays to create shortages and inflate the metal's price.