Chinese regulators appear to have successfully popped a mini-bubble for now in steel and other commodity futures, scaring off speculators who piled in last month to drive steep gains in the prices of raw materials from coal to cotton. China has vowed that it won’t allow its commodity futures markets to become a “hot-bed” for speculators, fearing that price movements not based on fundamentals could skew investment decisions and hamper efforts to rein in overcapacity. The price of the most traded steel product on the Shanghai Futures Exchange – which jumped nearly 17 percent in just four days in mid-April – fell for the second consecutive day on Wednesday and has given up all of its gains since the buying flurry began. At the same time, the level of open interest – the number of open contracts – has dropped sharply, suggesting many investors have liquidated their positions before […]