QUICK OVERVIEW

• The U.S. adds 248,000 new jobs in Sept. - the jobless rate falls to 5.9 % 

• U.S., Brazil strike new deal to end decade-old cotton trade dispute 

• Chinas PMI of non-manufacturing sectors out at 54% last month, down 0.4% from August. 

• The Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake in the world, is now completely dry…………… 

•  The ISM said its manufacturing index dropped to 56.6% last month from a three-month high of 59% in August 

• The IEA says world to add 200 gigawatts of solar power every year from 2025 onwards under the right policies, more than the entire stock in the world today. 

• Eurozone jobless rate stable at 11.5% in August 

• Eurozone annual inflation down to 0.3% in September 

• U.S. airline stocks fell as investors fretted that news of a first Ebola case in Texas would discourage people from flying. 

• U.S. Consumer spending rose 0.5% in August 

• The U.S. pending home sales index dropped 1 % after a 3.2% increase in July, the National Association of Realtors said. 

• Earth lost 50% of its wildlife in the past 40 years, says WWF Species across land, rivers and seas decimated as humans kill for food in unsustainable numbers and destroy habitats 

• The forest elephant population has fallen by more than 60% since 2002 

• Fracking will take place below Britons’ homes without their permission 

• Chinas preliminary Purchasing Managers’ Index from HSBC was at 50.5, matching the highest estimates in a Bloomberg survey 

•  U.S. existing-home sales fell 1.8% in August 

• S. Korea's national debt rises to 34.3 pct of GDP 

•  G20 vows to boost global economic growth by 1.8 pct 

• Brazil lowers growth forecast to 0.9% 

• (Reuters) - New international tax rules proposed could eliminate structures that have allowed companies such as Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc to shave billions of dollars off their tax bills....The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced a series of measures that, if implemented by members, could stop companies from employing many commonly-used practices to shift profits into tax havens. 

• While America spends $76,000 per soldier each year, EU states are down to $18,000, largely earmarked for pay and pensions, according to the Institute for Statecraft. Almost nothing is being spent on new equipment. Europe has slashed defence budgets by $70bn over the past two years even as Russia blitzes $600bn on war-fighting capabilities by 2020 and turns itself into a militarised state, a Sparta with nuclear weapons.