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July 10 (Bloomberg) — Natural rubber futures in Tokyo gained for a second day and headed for a weekly advance amid investor optimism that demand may be recovering after car sales in China increased and U.S. jobless claims declined.
The commodity used to make car tires added as much as 1.6 percent, tracking rises in crude oil and Japanese equities after the U.S. yesterday reported the drop in jobless claims. China’s passenger-vehicle sales surged in June, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said in a statement yesterday.
“Buyers are willing to buy,” said Roka Komiya, a trader at Marubeni Corp., said by phone in Tokyo. “That is the case not just for China, but Japan, Europe and the U.S. as well.”
Rubber for December added 0.6 percent to 159 yen a kilogram ($1,711 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 12:05 p.m. local time. The price has gained about 17 percent this year, after slumping 56 percent in 2008 amid the global recession.
Initial jobless claims in the U.S. fell by 52,000 to 565,000, a lower level than forecast, in the week ended July 4, the Labor Department said yesterday.
China’s sales of cars, sport-utility vehicles and other passenger vehicles surged 48 percent to 872,900 last month, according to the association. That helped to make the Asian nation the world’s largest auto market this year, with 27 percent more first-half sales than the U.S.
Rubber for November delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-active contract, rose 0.8 percent to 15,490 yuan ($2,267) a ton.
Source: Bloomberg