Asia's stockmarkets struggled to carry recent gains into a fourth straight session on Wednesday and the U.S. dollar steadied, as nagging doubts about inflation and the drag from rate rises crept back in to the global growth outlook.

The global production of natural rubber (NR) posted a 13.6% growth, year-on-year, amounting to 941,000 tons as compared to the same period a year ago. While the global demand of NR is estimated to a 0.3% growth, year-on-year, to 1.210 million tons. Despite the market, fundamentally remaining favourable to the NR market, but the industry was heavily impacted by other external global events during the reference period. 

SHANGHAI/BEIJING, May 16 (Reuters) - Shanghai set out plans on Monday for the end of a painful COVID-19 lockdown that has lasted more than six weeks, heavily bruising China's economy, and for the return of more normal life from June 1.

SHANGHAI, May 16 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) has delayed a plan to restore production at its Shanghai plant to levels before the city's COVID-19 lockdown by at least a week, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

BEIJING, May 16 (Reuters) - China's retail and factory activity fell sharply in April as wide COVID-19 lockdowns confined workers and consumers to their homes and severely disrupted supply chains, casting a long shadow over the outlook for the world's second-largest economy.

May 17 (Reuters) - Oil prices opened lower in early Asian trade on Tuesday after the European Union's efforts to enact a ban on Russian oil imports, a move that would tighten global supply, ran into resistance from member country Hungary.