BLBG:Ruble Weakens Second Day as Crude Oil Retreats on Demand Concern
The ruble weakened for a second day as crude oil, Russia’s main export earner, slid on concern demand is flagging.
The currency fell 0.1 percent to 31.1175 as of 3:39 p.m. in Moscow and was little changed versus the euro at 40.1800 and the central bank’s euro-dollar target basket.
Oil sank 0.7 percent to $91.24 per barrel in New York after an industry report showed U.S. crude stockpiles climbed a fourth week, signaling demand may be faltering in the world’s biggest user of the commodity. China’s non-manufacturing industries expanded at the weakest pace since at least March 2011, data from the National Bureau of Statistics and China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing showed.
“Recent oil price softness” is a “source of risk,” Benoit Anne, the head of emerging markets strategy at Societe Generale SA in London, said in an e-mail.
Non-deliverable forwards showed the ruble at 31.6009 per dollar in three months compared with 31.5938 yesterday.
The extra yield investors demand to own Russia’s dollar bonds over U.S. Treasuries fell two basis points to 199 basis points, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI Global Index. An index of five-year government bond yields rose five basis points yesterday to 7.580 percent.
To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Nicholson in Moscow at anicholson6@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Gavin Serkin at gserkin@bloomberg.net
