SYDNEY (Reuters) - Asian stocks rose on Wednesday as hopes of effective coronavirus vaccines and the growing prospect of more U.S. fiscal stimulus cheered investors ahead of the Christmas holiday season.
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped on Wednesday on a surprise gain in crude oil inventories in the United States and as investors continued to worry about demand for fuel being squeezed amid tighter lockdowns in Europe to counter the coronavirus pandemic.
TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar languished near 2 1/2-year lows on Wednesday as progress toward a massive U.S. government spending bill and COVID-19 relief measures whetted risk appetite, sapping demand for the safest assets.
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s economy will suffer a smaller contraction this year than initially forecast but won’t return to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels until at least early 2022, economists in a Reuters poll said.
Automakers in Turkey produced some 1.15 million vehicles- including automobiles and commercial vehicles - in this January-November, according to a sectoral report.
The world production of natural rubber (NR) fell by 8.5%, year-over-year, to 10.098 million tonnes during Jan-Oct 2020. Expecting a 10.8%, year-over-year, drop during Nov-Dec 2020, the production during the full year 2020 is expected at 12.597 million tonnes, down 9.0% from the previous year. The revised outlook represents a downward revision by 304,000 tonnes or 2.2 percentage points from the outlook for 2020 which ANRPC had reported in September 2020. The outlook reported in Sep 2020 was 12.901 million tonnes at 6.8% fall. In 2021, the world production is anticipated to recover by posting an 8.6% increase to 13.678 million tonnes. Even if it increases at the anticipated 8.6% rate, the output in 2021 will remain lower than that in 2019 (13.842 million tonnes) or 2018 (13. 839 million tonnes).