Tokyo rubber futures surge on oil rally, stronger stock prices

TOKYO, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Benchmark TOCOM rubber futures surged on Thursday on an overnight rally in oil prices and stronger stock prices in Tokyo, but investors remained cautious ahead of the end of a U.S.central bank policy meeting later the day.
FUNDAMENTALS

The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for February delivery had risen 5.4 yen, or 3.2 percent, to 176.2 yen ($1.46) per kg by 0038 GMT, after earlier climbing as far as 177.8 yen, a 3-day high.
A Reuters poll released on Wednesday suggested a rate hike remains a close call, although a little more than half the 80 economists surveyed reckoned the Federal Reserve would refrain from raising rates.
U.S.consumer prices unexpectedly fell in August as gasoline prices resumed their decline and a strong dollar curbed the cost of other goods, pointing to tame inflation that complicates the Fed’s decision whether to hike rates.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s on Wednesday downgraded Japan’s credit rating by one notch to A+, saying economic support for the country’s sovereign creditworthiness had continued to weaken in the past three or four years.

MARKET NEWS

Oil prices jumped as much as 6 percent on Wednesday, after the largest U.S.crude drawdown in seven months at the key delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma fed a new round of market volatility.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei stock average was up 1.3 percent in Thursday trade, after global stock prices rose for a second day the previous day with the S&P 500 hitting its highest in almost a month.
The dollar was up 0.2 percent against the yen at 120.62 yen JPY= , with the Japanese currency largely shrugging off the lowering of Japan’s sovereign credit rating by S&P.

DATA/EVENTS (GMT)

The following data is expected on Thursday: (Time in GMT)