Rubber Gains as U.S. Consumer Spending Boosts Demand Optimism

Rubber Gains as U.S. Consumer Spending Boosts Demand Optimism
Tokyo: Rubber jumped, advancing for a second day after U.S. retail sales in August expanded by the most in three years, increasing speculation that a recovery in the world’s largest economy will swell demand.

Futures in Tokyo surged as much as 3.4 percent, also boosted by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s comments in Washington yesterday that the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s has probably ended. Rubber plunged to a six-week low yesterday amid concern that demand in China, the world’s largest consumer, may be hurt by a U.S. tariff on Chinese tire imports.

“Better-than-expected U.S. sales data provided support to the price of futures,” Kazuhiko Saito, chief analyst at Tokyo- based commodity broker Fujitomi Co., said today by phone. (Bloomberg)
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