Hauled

Seemingly unfazed by depressed energy commodity prices and volatility, Sempra Energy senior executives hauled out the superlatives Tuesday for its joint venture in energy and metals commodity trading, RBS Sempra Commodities, announcing a nearly 100% quarter-over-quarter increase in profits, a new CEO and an integration of its Connecticut-based trading floor into one of North America’s largest operations. Sempra’s leaders made the comments during a first quarter conference call with financial analysts.

Many traders likely hauled out dictionaries Monday in attemptsto find the right adjectives to describe the awesomeness of themarket they were experiencing. In a tremendous push inspired byrevised forecasts calling for a severe winter cold snap next week,most points measured gains in the range of 70-95 cents, anddollar-plus advances were not uncommon. Some quotes topped $20 atall three California points.