Natural rubber futures slip on COVID-19 lockdowns in China

TOKYO—Natural rubber futures continued to decline across all major rubber exchanges during the trading week ended Oct. 28.

A newly introduced lockdown in 28 cities in China, affecting nearly 210 million citizens, accelerated bearish market sentiment, reported Japan's JXP exchange.

According to the weekly JPX report, the emergence of new COVID-19 variants caused a sharp drop in the Chinese equity market, putting rubber prices under further downside pressure.

In Japan, Osaka Exchange rubber futures fell 5 percent, while China's SHFE and INE futures dropped 3.2 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively.

In Singapore, Sicom futures slipped by 4.4 percent amid facing speculative selling pressure.

Rubber futures markets have been under intense selling pressure in recent months amid concerns about oversupply and weaker demand from major consuming countries such as China.

In September, according to JPX, Japan reported a slightly higher unemployment rate at 2.6 percent, while manufacturing PMI for October was weaker at 50.7.

On a brighter note, in China, the GDP growth rate in third quarter was 3.9 percent, higher than the market expectation of 3.5 percent.

In the U.S., stocks closed higher for the second consecutive week amid the mixed earnings announcements of big tech companies.