Rubber jumped by the most in six months after Japan’s currency slid to the lowest level since June 2009, boosting the appeal of yen-denominated futures.
The contract for delivery in September advanced as much as 4.7 percent, the biggest gain for a most-active contract since Sept. 14, to 265.3 yen a kilogram ($2,693 a metric ton) and was at 263.9 yen on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange at 10:36 a.m.
The yen traded at 98.41 per dollar after touching 98.85, the lowest since June 2009. The currency extended losses for a third day after the Bank of Japan said last week it would double bond buying to reach its target of 2 percent annual inflation within two years. Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest carmaker, led a rally in Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average toward its highest level in almost five years.
“The BOJ’s record stimulus sent the yen tumbling against the dollar, which boosted investor appetite for futures,” Kazuhiko Saito, an analyst at broker Fujitomi Co. in Tokyo, said today by phone.
Japan’s currency, traditionally considered a haven, fell against the greenback even as a Labor Department report showed U.S. payrolls grew by 88,000 workers in March, the least in nine months. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists was for a gain of 190,000.
The contract for delivery in September fell 0.2 percent to 21,300 yuan ($3,432) on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
Thai rubber free-on-board fell 1.2 percent to 81.75 baht ($2.79) a kilogram on April 5, according to the Rubber Research Institute of Thailand. That was the lowest level since November 2009, data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
Source: Bloomberg
