* Japanese rubber futures snapped a five-day rally on Friday
amid
easing oil prices and recession fears, though prices were still
up over the week.
* Osaka Exchange's rubber contract for September delivery finished 2.7 yen, or 1.4%, down at 210.1 yen ($1.57)
per kg but was up 0.1% over the week for a second consecutive
weekly gain.
* The rubber contract on the Shanghai futures exchange for
September delivery fell 80 yuan to finish at 11,860 yuan
($1,720.11) a tonne.
* Japan's benchmark Nikkei average was down 0.33% at
the
close.
* "The futures market has a pretty flat forward curve,
indicating
little conviction in the market until it breaks out of this
range," said Farah Miller, CEO of independent rubber-focused
data company Helixtap Technologies.
* Japan's export growth slowed in March, dragged down by a
drop in
China-bound shipments of cars and steel in a slide that
underscores concern about slackening global demand amid higher
interest rates and Western banking sector jitters.
* Oil prices eased for the third straight day on Friday and
looked
set for a hefty weekly loss, encouraging manufacturers to shift
to synthetic rubber derived from oil, weighing on the natural
rubber market.
* Asian stocks slid toward their worst week in a month and a
half
on Friday and oil nursed losses as U.S. data and earnings showed
signs of weakness.
* The front-month rubber contract for May delivery on
Singapore Exchange's SICOM platform last traded at 136.9 U.S.
cents per kg, down 1.2%.
($1 = 133.8100 yen)
($1 = 6.8949 yuan)
(Reporting by Carman Chew
Editing by David Goodman
)
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