UK regulator launches probe into LME nickel trading halt

A British financial watchdog on Friday launched its first ever investigation of a UK exchange for possible misconduct after the London Metal Exchange’s decision last year to halt nickel trading. It was unclear, however, whether the probe would look at the exchange’s controversial decision to cancel billions of dollars of trades. The world’s largest and oldest metals market annulled all nickel trades in March last year after chaotic price action and suspended trading for the first time since 1988. The March 8 suspension occurred after prices doubled to more than $100,000 a tonne in a matter of hours in a…