TOKYO, Feb 27 (Reuters) – Most Tokyo rubber futures contracts fell on Friday but they stayed within recent ranges after early gains on strong overnight oil prices were wiped out by a firmer yen.
* Many are focusing on the fate of General Motors Corp , which recently reported a $30.9 billion net loss for 2008, as traders look for news that could push rubber prices out of their current range.
* Rubber on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange has mostly traded between 130-155 yen per kg this year, capped at the high end by worries about poor demand and supported at the low end by concerns that producers might step in to prop up prices.
* “Rubber prices are caught in a narrow band and it may be a while before it breaks out of that given the lack of fresh news,” a Tokyo-based broker said.
* The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for August delivery <0#JRU:> ended down 1.9 yen or 1.4 percent at 140.2 yen per kg.
* TOCOM rubber climbed above 150 yen earlier this year but failed to hold there as the deepening global recession stirred fears about falling demand for the industrial commodity.
* U.S. oil futures gained nearly $7 a barrel in the last three days although some of the gains were pared on Friday when the price extended losses to fall closer to $44. [O/R]
* The yen rose on Friday from a 3-½ month low against the dollar as Japanese output data matched economists’ expectations and led speculators to take profits on the dollar’s rise versus the Japanese currency in the last two weeks. [USD/]
* Japan’s Nikkei stock average gained 1.5 percent, partly helped by news of a likely agreement between the U.S. government and Citigroup . [ID:nSP313455] [.T]
* Physical rubber prices were mostly unchanged with Indonesian rubber attracting buyers due to its competitively low price.

PRICES OF ASIAN PHYSICAL RUBBER COMPARED WITH THURSDAY
Grade Price Change
Thai RSS3 (Mar) $1.45/kg unchanged
Thai RSS3 (Apr) $1.45/kg unchanged
Thai STR20 (Mar) $1.37/kg unchanged
Thai STR20 (Apr) $1.37/kg unchanged
Malaysia SMR20 (Mar) $1.37/kg unchanged
Malaysia SMR20 (Apr) $1.37/kg unchanged
Indonesia SIR20 (Mar) $0.56/lb unchanged
Indonesia SIR20 (Apr) $0.56/lb unchanged
Thai USS3 46 baht/kg unchanged
Thai 60-percent latex (drums, Mar) $1,350/tonne unchanged
Thai 60-percent latex (bulk, Mar) $1,200/tonne unchanged

Source: Reuters

Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) — Natural rubber futures climbed to a one-week high in Tokyo, as a weaker Japanese currency versus the dollar boosted the appeal of yen-denominated contracts.

Prices rose as much as 3.8 percent, gaining for a second day, as the yen declined to a three-month low before reports this week that may show Japan’s recession is deepening. Rubber, used in vehicle tires, trades globally in dollars and the futures often move in the opposite direction to the Japanese currency.

“Rubber is getting support from the falling yen.” Rewat Yenchai, an analyst at Bangkok-based AGROW Enterprise Ltd. said today by phone. “That helps counter weak fundamentals, especially when you look at the car industry,” he said.

Rubber for August delivery gained 3.2 percent to 141.4 yen a kilogram ($1,445 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 1:10 p.m. local time. The contract earlier reached 142.2 yen, the highest since Feb. 18.

Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s third-largest automaker, will cut output by more than 70 percent this month, the Nikkei newspaper reported today, without citing sources. The company’s spokesman Mitsuru Yonekawa said later that the carmaker will raise domestic production in March compared with February after lowering vehicle inventory levels to match demand.

The yen declined to 97.79 against the dollar as of 12:09 p.m. in Tokyo from 97.39 yen late in New York yesterday. Japan’s unemployment rate probably rose to 4.6 percent last month, the highest since February 2005, a survey of economists showed. The data will be released tomorrow.

May-delivery rubber on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-active contract, added 4 percent to 13,380 yuan ($1,957) a ton at the 11:30 a.m. local time break.

Source: Bloomberg

TOKYO, Feb 26 (Reuters) – Key Tokyo rubber futures rose
nearly 4 percent on Thursday, buoyed by a rally in the Shanghai
market and the yen’s fall to a three-month low versus the dollar.
* Firm oil prices also provided support. Oil was steady above
$42 a barrel, maintaining its momentum from Wednesday after U.S.
data showing a larger-than-expected drop in gasoline stocks.
[O/R]
* The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for August
delivery <0#JRU:> ended up 5.1 yen or 3.7 percent at 142.1 yen
per kg, after rising as high as 142.7 yen, a one-week high for a
benchmark contract.
* The previous benchmark July contract hit a two-month low of
130.4 yen last week amid demand concerns.
* “Tokyo cannot help but catch up with Shanghai as prices
there extended gains,” said Shuji Sugata, a manager in Mitsubishi
Corp Futures and Securities’ research team. “In addition,
external factors are supportive as the yen is weak and oil has
gone beyond $40,” he said.
* In Shanghai, the benchmark May rubber futures contract
<0#SNR:> jumped 3.6 percent to 13,380 yuan per tonne.
* The yen tumbled to a three-month low against the dollar on
Thursday amid concerns about Japan’s economic outlook. [USD/] A
fall in the Japanese currency inflates yen-based prices.
* News on Wednesday that Malaysia and Indonesia would jointly
curb rubber supplies had a limited impact on rubber prices.
Government ministers from the world’s No.2 and No.3 producing
countries said they would further reduce rubber output by a
combined 115,000 tonnes this year by replanting more rubber
trees. [ID:nLP580319]
* Market participants were instead waiting for the outcome of
a March meeting of the International Rubber Consortium (IRCo) of
the world’s top three rubber-producing countries.
* The focus is on how Indonesia can meet the top three rubber
producers’ agreement not to sell rubber below $1.35 per kg, or
$0.60-0.61 per pound.

PRICES OF ASIAN PHYSICAL RUBBER COMPARED WITH WEDNESDAY
Grade Price Change
Thai RSS3 (Mar) $1.45/kg +$0.05
Thai RSS3 (Apr) $1.45/kg +$0.05
Thai STR20 (Mar) $1.37/kg +$0.02
Thai STR20 (Apr) $1.37/kg +$0.02
Malaysia SMR20 (Mar) $1.37/kg +$0.02
Malaysia SMR20 (Apr) $1.37/kg +$0.02
Indonesia SIR20 (Mar) $0.56/lb -$0.02
Indonesia SIR20 (Apr) $0.56/lb -$0.02
Thai USS3 46 baht/kg +1 baht
Thai 60-percent latex (drums, Mar) $1,350/tonne +$50
Thai 60-percent latex (bulk, Mar) $1,200/tonne +$50
** NOTE – The prices quoted above are offer prices collected
from traders in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. They are not
official prices quoted by state-run rubber agencies in those
countries.

Source: Reuters

Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — Natural rubber futures climbed to the highest in a week after the Japanese currency reached a three- month low against the dollar, making yen-denominated contracts more attractive to investors.

The yen weakened to 96.93 against the dollar yesterday, the weakest level since Nov. 25 as Japan’s deteriorating economy eroded the currency’s appeal as a refuge from the global financial crisis. Futures in Tokyo often move in the opposite direction to the yen as rubber trades globally in dollars.

Prices advanced as the biggest gain in U.S. stocks in a month yesterday eased concern a worsening economic slump may weaken demand for the commodity used in car tires. Stocks halted a six-day decline after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s statement that banks need not be nationalized helped lift equities from their lowest valuations in two decades.

Rubber for August delivery, the most-active contract, gained as much as 6.6 percent to the highest since Feb. 18 before trading at 139.8 yen a kilogram ($1,450 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 9:53 a.m. local time.

Source: Bloomberg

TOKYO, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Key Tokyo rubber futures rose more than 2 percent on Wednesday, supported by a recovery in oil and share prices on assurances by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the troubled banking sector would be protected.
* A fall in the yen to a three-month low against the dollar on Wednesday also supported rubber prices.
* The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for August delivery <0#JRU:>, which began trading on Tuesday, ended up 3 yen or 2.2 percent at 137.0 yen per kg. It rose as high as 140.7 yen, a one-week high for a benchmark rubber contract.
* Concerns about weak demand pulled down the previous benchmark contract to a two-month low of 130.4 yen last week.
* “Futures look supported by the currency and oil markets,” said a trader in Singapore.
* Oil prices inched above $40, after rising 4 percent on Tuesday, tracking a bounce on Wall Street, and higher-than-expected compliance by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to its agreed production cuts encouraged the gains. [O/R]
* The dollar hit a three-month high against the yen, keeping gains from Tuesday when it rose on safe-haven bids for the U.S. currency after Bernanke warned that the U.S. recession may drag into 2010 unless government efforts succeed in restoring financial stability. [USD/]
* President Barack Obama struck a balance between grim economic reality and a more hopeful outlook on Tuesday in giving reassurances that the country will emerge from crisis “stronger than before.” [ID:nN18299008]
* Tokyo’s Nikkei share average <.N225> gained 1.6 percent, after nearing a 26-year low the previous day, as Wall Street also rallied back from 12-year lows on Tuesday on Bernanke’s assurances that he preferred to support banks without nationalising them. [.T]
* Rubber prices have struggled to rise much above 140 yen this year due to deteriorating prospects for global economy and growing concerns over the financial sector.
* Japanese trade data released on Wednesday showed the country’s exports nearly halved in January from a year earlier, with record slides in shipments to the United States, Europe and the rest of Asia pointing to a deepening recession across much of the world. [ID:nT49636]
* Rubber demand is likely to slow in March, with recent big buyer China pulling back from the market, but prices may still rise because of the normal seasonal drop in supply, traders said on Tuesday. [ID:nBKK46208]
* Asian physical rubber prices were a touch softer in quiet trade on Wednesday, but drew support from the rise in Tokyo futures.
PRICES OF ASIAN PHYSICAL RUBBER COMPARED WITH TUESDAY
Grade Price Change
Thai RSS3 (Mar) $1.40/kg -$0.05
Thai RSS3 (Apr) $1.40/kg -$0.05
Thai STR20 (Mar) $1.35/kg -$0.02
Thai STR20 (Apr) $1.35/kg -$0.02
Malaysia SMR20 (Mar) $1.35/kg -$0.02
Malaysia SMR20 (Apr) $1.35/kg -$0.02
Indonesia SIR20 (Mar) $0.58/lb -$0.01
Indonesia SIR20 (Apr) $0.58/lb -$0.01
Thai USS3 45 baht/kg -1 baht
Thai 60-percent latex (drums, Mar) $1,300/tonne unchanged
Thai 60-percent latex (bulk, Mar) $1,150/tonne unchanged
** NOTE – The prices quoted above are offer prices collected from traders in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. They are not official prices quoted by state-run rubber agencies in those countries.

Source: Reuters