TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices dropped on Friday extending days of losses as the threat of war in the Middle East receded and investors switched attention to economic growth prospects and the rise in U.S. crude oil and product inventories.

Kochi: The rubber industry expects the rally in international natural rubber prices and depreciation of the rupee to further reduce imports of the commodity into the country.

A North Korean trading company wants foreign investors to chip in to a rubber factory on the country’s east coast, according to a posting on an official government foreign trade website.

Global Track Manufacturing (Global Track) will invest at least US$2.5 million in a production plant in Milan, Tennessee, touted to bring at least 250 jobs to the area by 2021, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD).

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices climbed on Thursday after a rocket attack on Baghdad triggered fresh concern over the potential for conflict in the Middle East, a day after markets were roiled by an Iranian missile strike on Iraqi bases hosting U.S. forces.

BEIJING, Jan 9 (Reuters) - China’s producer prices in December fell 0.5% from a year earlier, official data showed on Thursday, marking the sixth month of contraction as manufacturers struggled with weak demand and the U.S.-Sino trade war.