Tokyo futures ease as oil loses steam

TOKYO: Key Tokyo rubber futures fell on Friday, weighed down by a retreat in oil prices, as players sought fresh clues for market direction.

The key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract for November delivery fell 4.1 yen or 1 percent to settle at 383.7 yen per kg, posting the first weekly loss in five weeks.

The most active Shanghai rubber contract for September delivery closed on Friday at 33,045 yuan ($5,101.818) per tonne, little changed from Thursday's close of 33,035 yuan per tonne. Volume inched up to 1,127,020 lots from Thursday's 1,026,794 lots.

Oil prices retreated from highs hit earlier in the day, when Brent crude rose to $120 a barrel for the first time in five weeks on better-than-expected trade deficit data from top consumer United States and supply worries after OPEC failed to agree on an output hike.

While US exports reached a record in April and tempered fears that the economic recovery was running off the rails, the pace of China's export growth slowed in May, which suggested weaker global demand was biting.

But the stronger Chinese imports showed the world's second-largest economy is holding up well despite government policy tightening and power shortages.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Friday its operating profit this year would fall 35 percent to 300 billion yen ($3.7 billion) after Japan's biggest earthquake on record severely disrupted car production and slashed sales.

Japan's Nikkei share average rose on Friday, taking cues from receding worries over the US economy after the export data, though market players remained sceptical it would break through resistance from its 200-day moving average.

The euro struggled to regain its footing on Friday although it held above one-week lows as worries about the euro-zone's debt problems overwhelmed any support from a likely interest rate rise by the European Central Bank next month.

Copyright Reuters, 2011