* US government will hold trade talks with Taiwan to counter China
* Renewed Iran nuclear deal appears “closer than we’ve been before”
* Fed minutes: rate hikes will continue until inflation slows substantially
* Nearly 3/4 of US farmers say drought is damaging their harvests
* Europe’s summer heat is exacerbating energy challenges
* China deploys cloud seeding to ease toll from record heat wave
* Mortgage boycotts spread across China
* US retail sales were flat in July but spending ex-gas and autos is still solid:

Analyst sees a new rally for commodities later in the year. “In general, commodity supply is constrained due to years of underinvestment — official inventories are low across multiple sectors — and because of weather-related and geopolitical factors. Meanwhile, we see positive demand trends,” says UBS GWM Chief Investment Officer Mark Haefele. Part of the analysis is expecting Chinese demand to recover as the government ramps up fiscal stimulus to counter slower economic activity.

Rule of 20 indicator suggests stocks haven’t bottomed yet, based on the sum of year-over-year CPI growth and trailing price-earnings ratio (P/E). The current 28.5 reading is well above 20. Previous market bottoms have occurred at levels below 20, advises a research note from Bank of America via Business Insider.