Canada

SAFE Banking Act and other potential paths to legalize aspects of cannabis on the federal level remain on the back burner, but more states are growing their presence in the business.

Kansas City Southern said Wednesday it is terminating its merger agreement with Canadian National Railway Co. and entering a merger agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. , after determining that it's $31 billion bid was the best of the two competing offers. Under the terms of the new agreement, KCS shareholders will receive $90 in cash and 2.884 shares of CP common stock for each share owned. Holders of the company's preferred stock will receive $37.50 in cash for each share owned. KCS will pay Canadian National a breakup fee of $700 million, and an extra $700 million to cover a sum paid by Canadian National to reimburse KCS a termination fee paid to CP in May. "Both of these payments will be reimbursed to KCS by CP," the company said in a statement. The company will schedule a special shareholder meeting to fove on the new deal in due course, said the statement. KCS shares were up 0.5% premarket and have gained 37% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 18%.

Knowlton Development Corp. Inc. has set terms for its initial public offering, in which the Canada-based beauty, personal care and home care company could be valued at up to $3.22 billion. The company is looking to raise up to about $857.1 million, as it is offering 57.14 million shares in the IPO, which is expected to price between $13 and $15 a share. The company expects to have about 214.66 million shares outstanding after the IPO. The stock is expected to list on the NYSE under the ticker symbol "KDC." Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, UBS Investment Bank and BMO Capital Markets are the lead underwriters. Knowlton Development recorded a net loss of $12.7 million on revenue of $603.4 million for the three months ended July 31, after a loss of $600,000 on revenue of $482.4 million in the same period a year ago. The company is looking to go public at a time that the Renaissance IPO ETF has gained 5.2% year to date while the S&P 500 has advanced 19.0%.

Uranium has gone parabolic in just the last few weeks. One exchange-traded fund is going Pac-Man with the commodity's supply.

Jefferies on Friday upgraded shares of Aurora Cannabis Inc. to hold from underperform after the stock has fallen 10.5% so far this year. The U.S.-listed shares rose 0.9% in premarket trading. Analyst Owen Bennett said recent trading levels of the stock "better reflect reality" of operational weakness and the value of the company's prospects to expand into the U.S. market from the Canadian market. "The main bull argument for much of the Canadian names in recent times has been U.S. optionality [and] ACB is no different," Bennett said. He cut his price target for Aurora Cannabis by 9% to $8.56. The stock's weakness this year comes as the Cannabis ETF has rallied 17.9% and the S&P 500 has gained 20.8%.

Crude oil shot up more than 3% in only one day amid rising demand and a supply disruption, while many oil and gas stocks were up even more.

Congress still hasn't raised the federal borrowing limit to prevent a U.S. default, even as the Treasury Department cautions that "cash and extraordinary measures" are most likely to run out next month.

Many investors may be taken by surprise as lawmakers battle over government spending.

Oil prices decline on Friday as crude production in the Gulf of Mexico makes a slow comeback from Hurricane Ida, but both the U.S. and global benchmarks score solid weekly gains for a fourth week in a row.

Gold futures end lower on Friday, with prices tallying a third consecutive session loss and a second weekly decline in a row, as the U.S. dollar strengthened ahead of the Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week.