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TOKYO, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Tokyo rubber futures ended a touch higher on Thursday after a day of extreme price swings as they tracked gold’s rollercoaster ride through positive and negative territory.
* The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for February delivery <0#JRU:> ended the day up 0.2 yen or 0.7 percent at 286.3 yen per kg, after earlier peaking at 292.7 yen, up 2.3 percent.
At the other extreme it had slipped 0.9 percent to an intraday low of 283.4 yen.
* Tokyo rubber futures were rising on the strength of gold, rather than any fresh incentives of their own, said Koji Suzuki, a senior analyst at SBI Futures Co Ltd.
* “Gold’s rise comes from a flight-to-quality, but this does not apply to rubber’s climb, which should be seen as simply tracking the precious metal’s rise,” he said.
* Traders have said that there is some strength in rubber’s fundamentals, such as supply tightness, but this has fallen to the wayside in the face of the global financial woes that have rocked commodities markets.
* Spot gold briefly rose more than 3 percent to a six-week high above $892 an ounce, but it later gave up gains to waver beneath that level.
* U.S. crude for October delivery fell below $97 a barrel, a day after surging by $6 lifted by a decline in weekly U.S. crude stocks and a wave of buying in some commodities. [O/R]
* The dollar spiked against the yen after the world’s top central banks moved to provide liquidity into global money markets on Thursday in a coordinated effort to ease a funding squeeze triggered by the upheaval on Wall Street. [USD/] [ID:nSP309535]
* At 0833 GMT, the dollar was up 0.5 percent at 104.81 yen.
PRICES OF ASIAN PHYSICAL RUBBER COMPARED WITH WEDNESDAY
Grade Price Change
Thai RSS3 (Oct) $2.85/kg -$0.09
Thai RSS3 (Nov) $2.85/kg -$0.09
Thai STR20 (Oct) $2.85/kg -$0.05
Thai STR20 (Nov) $2.85/kg -$0.05
Malaysia SMR20 (Oct) $2.82/kg -$0.08
Malaysia SMR20 (Nov) $2.82/kg -$0.08
Indonesia SIR20 (Oct) $1.27/lb -$0.04
Indonesia SIR20 (Nov) $1.27/lb -$0.04
Thai USS3 91 baht/kg -2 bahts
Thai 60-percent latex (drums, Oct) $1,990/tonne -$50
Thai 60-percent latex (bulk, Oct) $1,850/tonne -$50
Source: Reuters