The Shanghai Futures Exchange is closed between Oct. 1 and Oct. 7 for the National Day holiday and will reopen on Oct. 8. The front-month rubber contract on Singapore's SICOM exchange for November delivery last traded at 125.2 US cents per kg, down 1.5%. US manufacturing activity tumbled to a more than 10-year low in September as lingering trade tensions weighed on exports, further heightening financial market fears of a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the third quarter.
Automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp and Hyundai Motor, on Tuesday reported a sharp drop in September US sales, hurt by the early timing of Labor Day as sales from the holiday weekend were booked in August. "Disappointing US manufacturing data prompted a sell-off in Tokyo stock market as well as rubber prices," said Hiroyuki Kikukawa, general manager of research at Nissan Securities. "There were also technical selling after the benchmark dove below a key support level of 160 yen on Tuesday," he said, predicting negative sentiment may drag the market to around 150 yen -151 yen.