Tokyo rubber futures jumped more than 4 percent to their highest in 10 months in early trade on Monday, as the yen dropped to its weakest against the U.S. dollar in 33 months.
The most-active Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber futures contract for July delivery was up 10.1 yen at 333.6 yen per kg by 0052 GMT, after touching a high of 337.4 yen, the highest for any benchmark since March 29, 2012.
The yen earlier hit 92.80 against the dollar, its lowest since May 2010.
A weaker yen makes dollar-based commodities more expensive and can encourage players to take speculative buying positions in TOCOM rubber. Theoretically, a 1 yen decline in the yen against the dollar pushes up Tokyo rubber prices by 2.5 yen to 3.0 yen per kg, brokers have said.
Rubber inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange had risen 0.8 percent late last week from the week before, the exchange said on Friday.
Data events scheduled on Monday (Time in GMT):
- 0930 Euro Zone Sentix index Feb
- 1000 Euro Zone Producer prices Dec
- 1445 U.S. ISM-New York Index Jan
- 1500 U.S. Employment Trends Jan
- 1500 U.S. Factory orders Dec
