Quick Overview

• The New York Fed said it’s "Empire State" general business conditions index increased to 7.10 in August from 5.08 in July. The figure was below the 8.00 expected by economists

• The National Association of Home Builders confidence index fell to 13 in August, down from 14 in July.

• Japan's GDP slowed to an annualized pace of 0.4 % in the three months ended June 30

• (WSJ) A federal judge's decision Friday to undo the government's five-year-old approval of genetically-modified sugar beets, from which roughly half of U.S. sugar is derived, won't disrupt supplies for at least a year, but could pose headaches for food companies after that.

• (Bloomberg) -- Russia’s drought, which spurred the biggest wheat-price rally since 1973, may push world food costs higher as shortages create “panic” among importers, said Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute. Sparse precipitation will become more common as global warming creates more volatile weather, Brown said today in a conference call with reporters. Russia’s export ban on wheat, imposed last week, is a harbinger of future governmental actions as food scarcity becomes the worldwide norm, Brown said. “Importers become nervous” when exporters restrict trade, said Brown, who for decades has argued that human food and energy demands are outstripping nature’s capacity to meet them.

• London House prices fell 4.1% wiping out 2010 gains.

• Russia's severe drought may cut its grain output by 40 percent this year.

•  Russia’s Sugar Producers’ Union has cut its beet-crop forecast by 20 %.

• Spot gold is trading at its highest level in more than six weeks -- breaking through resistance at $1,220

• China's trade surplus rose to $28.7 billion in July from $20 billion in June, the highest level since January 2009

• Shenzhen-EU 2010 first 6 month trade rose 34.9%

• Brazil's year-to-date trade surplus totaled $10.6
  billion, compared with a surplus of $18.43 billion in the same period of 2009.

• (FT)Prices of palm oil, which accounts for 60% of the world’s vegetable oil supply, have risen to their highest levels since May 2009 because of heavy rain and floods in Indonesia, which accounts for nearly a half of global production