SINGAPORE, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Benchmark TOCOM rubber futures were set on Friday for their biggest gain since 2009, up more than 60 percent so far in 2016 with a rally in crude oil prices and fund buying underpinning the market.
FUNDAMENTALS
The Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for June delivery JRUc6 has risen 64 percent to 260.8 yen per kg in 2016.In December, the market has rallied around 14 percent, its fourth consecutive month of gains.
The most-active rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange SNRcv1 has added 34 percent during the year.
Both markets have finished lower in the last three years.
U.S.crude futures CLc1 have risen 45 percent in 2016 on the back production cuts announced by OPEC.
Oil prices will gradually rise towards $60 per barrel by the end of 2017, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday, with further upside capped by a strong dollar, a likely recovery in U.S.oil output and possible non-compliance by OPEC members with agreed cuts.
MARKET NEWS
U.S. oil prices rose in early Asian trade on Friday shrugging off a second consecutive week of crude oil inventory builds, with a U.S.Energy Information Administration (EIA) report late on Thursday indicating an unexpected rise in crude stocks.
The euro jumped to its highest in three weeks in holiday-thinned Asian trade on Friday, but was on track for a losing year on expectations that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s policies will boost inflation and prompt the U.S.Federal Reserve to hike interest rates at a faster pace.
DATA/EVENTS (GMT)
1445 U.S. Chicago PMI Dec. USCPMI=ECI
1530 U.S. ECRI Weekly Index USECRW=ECI
1530 U.S. ECRI Weekly Annualized USGRW=ECI
(Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Richard Pullin)
