Rubber declined to a one-month low as a drop in oil reduced the appeal of the commodity as an alternative to synthetic products used in tires.
Rubber for delivery in November fell as much as 2.8 percent to 251.1 yen a kilogram ($2,498 a metric ton) on the Tokyo Commodity Exchange, the lowest level since May 2. The most-active contract traded at 256 yen at 10:47 a.m., extending losses for this year to 15 percent.
Brent crude dropped below $100 a barrel for the first time in a month and WTI declined amid speculation that stockpiles will climb after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries kept its production target unchanged. Japan’s currency traded near a three-week high against the dollar, cutting the appeal of the yen-denominated futures, as a sell-off in global stocks raised investor appetite for the haven.
“Rubber came under pressure as it lost support from the currency and energy markets,” Takaki Shigemoto, an analyst at research company JSC Corp., said by phone today.
Thai rubber free-on-board rose 0.6 percent to 91.90 baht ($3.02) a kilogram on May 31, the highest level since Feb. 20, according to the Rubber Research Institute of Thailand.
Rubber for delivery in September on the Shanghai Futures Exchange was little changed at 18,745 yuan ($3,056) a ton. Natural-rubber inventories dropped for a fourth week, by 0.6 percent, to 114,225 tons, the bourse said on May 31, based on a survey of nine warehouses in Shanghai, Shandong, Yunnan, Hainan and Tianjin, according to the exchange.
Source: Bloomberg
