Article contentBased on its first-half performance, the company is already within touching distance of the top end of its annual earnings goal, which is set at $3.5 billion, Bloomberg said. The trading business made $2.9 billion last year and a record haul of $6.4 billion in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Commodity-trading houses are reaping windfall profits as the conflict in the Middle East creates dislocations across energy markets. At the same time, metal prices have been buoyed by everything from the artificial-intelligence boom to trade tariffs, Bloomberg noted. Glencore, which is a major trader in both metals and energy, didn’t break down where its profits had come from, but will give more details at its first-half results next week.