SHANGHAI, April 3 (Reuters) - Asian shares hovered near seven-month highs early on Wednesday as global investors paused for breath after the strong rally seen earlier this week, while oil approached the key $70 per barrel mark.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - World stock markets were little changed on Tuesday but still managed to touch a six-month high as investors took a breather following a three-day run of gains while the possibility of tightening supply kept oil prices on the rise .

TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar was steady against its peers on Wednesday, as the recent bounce in U.S. bond yields stalled on increasingly dovish rhetoric from global central banks.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices rose for a fourth day on Wednesday, holding firm despite an industry report showing that U.S. inventories rose unexpectedly last week, with supply cuts and sanctions supporting the market.

The Association of Natural Rubber Producing Countries (ANRPC) is happy to release the Natural Rubber Trends & Statistics, January 2019.

From Secretary-General's Desk

The world production of natural rubber (NR) experienced a fall at 10.1%, amounting to 1.080 million tonnes in January 2019 on a year-to-year basis. This may result from the recent tropical storm reported in Southern part of Thailand which is the major NR producing provinces in Thailand. In contrast,  the world demand of NR recorded an increase of 1.3% to 1.151 million tonnes during the same reference period. 

TOKYO (Reuters) - Oil prices rose to fresh highs for the year on Tuesday, after a U.S. official said Washington is considering more sanctions on Iran and a key Venezuelan export terminal halted operations.