TOKYO, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Benchmark TOCOM rubber futures dropped on Monday, snapping two days of climbing and falling from a near 5-month high, with investors taking profits after oil prices fell.
FUNDAMENTALS
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for April delivery JRUc6 0#2JRU: was down 1.2 yen, or 0.7 percent, at 182.7 yen ($1.74) per kg as of 0041 GMT.It posted its sharpest gain in three weeks last Friday and rose to its highest since Oct. 17 at 184.3 yen. RUB/T
Rubber inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange fell 0.3 percent from the prior Friday, the bourse said late last week.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (GT) , the biggest U.S. tire maker, cut its full-year forecast for sales and operating income, hit by a fall in U.S. heavy-duty truck production, sending shares down as much as 13.71 percent on Friday.
Japan’s industrial output stalled in September in a worrying sign that the economy may be losing some momentum due to weak consumer spending and exports.
MARKET NEWS
Oil prices extended declines on Monday after non-OPEC producers made no specific commitment to join OPEC in limiting oil output levels to prop up prices – a stance that suggested they wanted OPEC to solve its differences first. O/R
The U.S. dollar was quoted around 104.57 yen JPY= on Monday, versus 105.17 yen on Friday evening in Asian trade. The dollar fell about 0.7 percent to a session low of 104.49 yen on Friday after the FBI said it would review more emails related to Hillary Clinton’s private email use. USD/ A stronger yen makes yen-denominated assets less affordable when purchased in other currencies.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei stock average .N225 was down 0.3 percent after Wall Street closed lower. MKTS/GLOB
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
The following data is expected on Monday: (Time in GMT)
0700 Germany Retail sales Sep
1000 Euro zone Flash GDP Q3
1000 Euro zone Inflation Oct
1230 U.S. Personal income Sep
1345 U.S. Chicago PMI Oct
($1 = 104.8500 yen)
(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Joseph Radford)
