Report Faults Wall Street for High Energy Prices

By BEN PROTESS

A new report by Better Markets, a nonprofit group advocating constraints on speculative trading, blames Wall Street for inflating prices at the gas pump and the grocery store.

The study centered on commodity index funds, investments tied to the value of oil, wheat and other commodity futures contracts. The funds, according to the Better Markets review of more than 25 years in data, have historically caused an uptick in futures market prices as they periodically exit expiring contracts and roll into a new batch of deals.