[AP] - The reclusive New Zealand billionaire buying the U.S. maker of Hefty brand trash bags to create the world's second-biggest packaging business started out as a tow truck driver and bounced back from the brink of bankruptcy more than a decade ago to become his country's richest person.

[at Financial Times] - Copper rose to a four-month high on Thursday as optimism about Chinese demand buoyed the industrial metals markets amid tightening physical supplies.

[Business Wire] - INDIANAPOLIS & GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.----Dow AgroSciences LLC announced today it is acquiring the assets of the Colorado based seed company Grand Valley Hybrids. The addition of Grand Valley complements Dow AgroSciences’ Mycogen Seeds brand and its western U.S. silage business.

[TheStreet.com] - The VIX closed at a 17-day low, down $0.72, at $23.18, into the August employment report.

[AP] - Air Products and Chemicals Inc. said Thursday it has won a contract to supply an onsite air separation unit to a subsidiary of Russian petrochemical company Sibur.

[PR Newswire] - Monsanto Company's Carl Casale, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Brett Begemann, executive vice president – seeds & traits, will address investors in separate investor conferences in September.