Rubber declined for a second day, extending a retreat from a three-month high, on concern that the economic recovery is faltering, capping demand for the commodity used to make tires.
Futures in Tokyo declined as much as 1.2 percent after climbing 3.7 percent last week. The price reached 295.2 yen per kilogram ($3,459 per metric ton) on Aug. 20, the highest level since May 6.
Most Asian stocks fell amid mounting concern that the global economy may be faltering after calls by a European Central Bank official to maintain stimulus measures. Purchases of U.S. new and existing houses dropped 12 percent to a 5.01 million annual pace, the lowest since March 2009, according to the median forecast of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.
“Worries about economies sapped investor appetite for riskier assets,” leading to sales of industrial commodities including rubber, Kazuhiko Saito, an analyst at Tokyo-based broker Fujitomi Co., said today by phone.
January-delivery rubber dropped as much as 3.5 yen to 287.6 yen per kilogram on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange before trading at 287.8 yen at 11:27 a.m.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average slumped to a nine-month low after European Central Bank council member Axel Weber said emergency lending should be extended, indicating that the region’s debt crisis may take longer to solve.
Weber said on Aug. 20 that the ECB should help banks through end-of-year liquidity tensions before determining in the first quarter when to withdraw emergency-lending measures. The comments on the need to keep open the flow of emergency funds go beyond what ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet has announced.
Cash-rubber prices in Thailand, the world’s largest exporter, stayed unchanged at 105.5 baht ($3.35) per kilogram, as supply remained limited because of rainfalls in many estate areas, the Rubber Research Institute of Thailand said Aug. 20.
January-delivery rubber on the Shanghai Futures Exchange lost 1.2 percent to 25,130 yuan ($3,697) a ton at 10:15 a.m. local time.
(bloomberg.com)
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