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Inflation is falling in Brazil. For the 30-day period through mid-August, consumer inflation was just 4.44%. That's the first time since January that inflation has been below the government's target of 4.5%.

Now the question is how long the improvement will last. The answer depends on your view regarding the strength of the global economy.

Many economists and financial analysts see the improvement in inflation as a temporary result of a slowing in the global economy.

 

The restaurant sector has been hit hard by the economic downturn, facing dismal share prices and poor profits. Some restaurants are turning to a new concept in hopes of reviving business: Food trucks.

I'm not talking about the roach coaches that pull up to construction sites with rubbery burgers and heartburn-inducing tacos. The new generation of food trucks is offering food similar to -- or in some cases better than -- what you'd find in nearby restaurants.

One restaurant industry consultant thinks that 10% of the top 200 restaurant chains will have food trucks within two years, according to The Los Angeles Times. "They're all talking about it," he added. 

Surprising analysts, consumers and tech heads everywhere, Apple Inc. (AAPL) announced this morning that it will make building applications for the iPhone and every iOS-powered device a whole lot easier.

The move from highly protective Apple surely isn’t an act of charity, however. Recent statistics show Google (GOOG) and its Android OS are making huge strides in the smart-phone market, and Apple is looking to fend the tech company off.

 

Pop quiz: Which of these fast-food icons was an actual human being?

a) Mayor McCheese

b) The King

c) Colonel Sanders

d) None of the above

If you answered C, congratulations. You are more knowledgeable than most young Americans.

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A new survey shows many had no idea Harlan Sanders was a real person who started the KFC chain -- known then as Kentucky Fried Chicken. And since so many folks apparently don't know that, KFC parent Yum Brands (YUM) is launching a new campaign coinciding with the Colonel's 120th birthday to educate the public on his relationship to the fried-chicken franchise's roots.

 

By Nancy Zambell, InvestorPlace.com

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, by now you know that August was characterized by a spate of merger and buyout action across Wall Street -- particularly in the tech sector. That’s because corporations are sitting on a boatload of cash and equity prices are relatively depressed, making the time ripe for a takeover or acquisition.

So which targets are next? I have three stocks in mind that are very affordable. And even if they aren't big buyout targets, they have the strength to succeed and bring investors profits.

 

The market liked President Barack Obama's speech. Rather odd when you consider that, to me, the speech may have been a very powerful blow against the Republicans in November. In my opinion, Obama very effectively painted a picture of the Republicans being in the pocket of the rich.

As the speech was going on, it struck me that if the Republicans don't give in on some sort of middle ground on the expiration of the Bush tax breaks, they are not going to take back the Senate and the House.

 

It's been a long time since I've heard the president be this masterful. By linking himself with Bill Clinton -- a man I think a lot of us in the market yearn for -- he gave us some confidence that the moderate Obama could be lurking. The mention of Reagan made me feel that way, too.

 

The Brazilian government is charging Petrobras (PBR) more than expected to buy 5 billion barrels of oil reserves. (Pre-transfer, the company has proven reserves of 15 billion barrels.) 

 

The price of $42.5 billion, to be paid in new stock, works out to $8.50 a barrel. That's more than the $7.50 oil industry analysts had been expecting. 

And since the price determines not only how many new shares the company will issue to the government but also how many shares it will have to offer to minority shareholders in a related rights offering, the higher price works out to a lot of dilution for existing shareholders.

 

Although I'm still bullish over the long-term, stocks and other risky assets are poised for a short-term pullback in the wake of the impressive rally that's taken the S&P 500 ($SPX) up 5.6% since the end of August. After bounding higher, shares are now meeting overhead resistance while at the same time, various technical indicators have moved into overbought territory. That's not a good sign.

 

Moreover, there are fresh worries over the health of the European financial system on reports this week that recently completed "stress tests" by regulators -- which were intended to boost confidence -- weren't as rigorous as they should've been. This has cast doubt on the entire situation and led investors to bid up safe haven assets like the U.S. dollar. That, in turn, has weighed on commodity prices and equities in general.

 

So while I still expect stocks to move up and out of the multi-month consolidation that has held the broad market indices since May, the situation is vulnerable to a pullback. Here's why.

 

Gold prices are hitting record levels, but there may be a better place to put your money.

 

With coffee prices hitting a 13-year high, the Wall Street Journal is hinting that investors might be better off owning coffee beans.

 

A second-straight poor coffee bean harvest in Colombia has triggered in a boom in coffee bean prices. The move higher may just be a supply-related event, but demand for coffee around the world is rising. This move in coffee may be the beginning of a bull run that has yet to run full course.

 

The corral of companies waiting to be turned loose on Wall Street is packed. About 160 companies are waiting to hit the market through initial public offerings, The New York Times reports.

That's the biggest IPO backlog since 2000, when anything with a dot-com in its name was going public. And this time, the companies hope to raise more than $56 billion -- a record amount.

"The question is whether the market can absorb it all," a principal at Renaissance Capital, the research firm that collected the data, told the Times. I'd say the answer to that is a big fat no. 

At the rate things are going, China will have the world's largest stock market within two decades, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs.

And the market value of stocks in emerging markets could hit $80 trillion, overtaking developed nations, the analysts added, as reported by Bloomberg. Emerging nations are growing their economies faster, and could nab as much as 55% of the world's equity capitalization within 20 years.

Wall Street is all over this one. Look for emerging-market stocks to start filling in a larger chunk of investment portfolios as we head to this new reality. 

Google (GOOG) will upgrade the way it performs searches for users by showing them results as they type in the search box.

The new feature, called Google Instant, will start showing results as the letters come in. If you were to search for "Sleeping Beauty," for instance, you'd start to see results with the first "S" -- and the list would change with each letter added (You can try it here).

The idea is to shave just a few seconds off of the typical search query. Google says that it takes people 9 seconds to type in a search and 15 seconds to pick a result, according to VentureBeat. This new way of showing results could cut that process by up to 5 seconds. 

By Burke Speaker, InvestorPlace

In a move that critics see as a greedy menu change to boost profits, Starbucks (SBUX) has erased the "tall" (small) coffee option from its drive-through menu. Defenders claim the switch is simply a way to reduce order confusion.

 

The "tall" remains on in-store menus and, yes, you can still order a drive-through "tall" if you request it. But across the nation, that size has all but vanished on outdoor drive-through signs. The new signage, rolled out over the past few weeks, lists only "grande" and "venti."

The theory among some consumers: Starbucks is encouraging you to buy a bigger cup of joe to perk up profits.

 

By Burke Speaker, InvestorPlace

 

McDonald’s (MCD) may be the No. 1 burger brand in the world, but it also has the dubious honor of having the worst-tasting burger in a new Consumer Reports ranking. 

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The poll of 28,000 online subscribers to the independent consumer advocacy magazine asked respondents to rate the burgers they had eaten on their most recent restaurant visits.

So who won the survey?

 

By Jon Ogg, InvestorPlace

Finding stocks to buy is simple on paper. It's all well and good to say a stock posting improving earnings is a good buy with upside potential. But how much upside?

The truth is that picking investments capable of dramatic gains -- potentially as much as doubling your money -- is much harder. That's because charts don't offer much support for big moves like this, and efficient market theory argues against such short-term performance.

But finding doublers, while difficult, is not impossible.