The potential entry of one of the world’s largest tobacco companies into the marijuana business is sending the shares of a Canadian cannabis company higher before the opening bell, and more in Wednesday’s Market In Brief.

Cronos Group confirmed talks late Monday with Marlboro maker Altria about a possible investment. Altria Group Inc., based in Richmond, Virginia, owns Philip Morris USA, the largest cigarette maker in the United States.

Canada legalized recreational marijuana use this year and in the U.S., the trend is moving in that direction on the state level.

Tilray Inc., a medical marijuana company in British Columbia, became the first cannabis business to begin trading publicly this year on a major U.S. stock exchange.

Shares of Cronos Group Inc., based in Toronto, rose 10 percent in premarket trading Tuesday.

MARKETS IN BRIEF

White House: Trump to Meet Tuesday With German Auto Execs

President Donald Trump plans to meet briefly Tuesday with the heads of three leading German automakers.

The meeting comes at a time of elevated U.S.-European trade tensions in which car exports have been a focus. Trump has threatened to slap tariffs on auto imports from Europe and other countries, citing U.S. trade deficits with those nations.

The White House says economic advisers are meeting with Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW to discuss investment opportunities in the U.S., including in manufacturing and research and development.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump will meet briefly with the auto executives.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday in Berlin dismissed suggestions that the automakers could conduct trade diplomacy. Merkel stressed that trade negotiations are a responsibility for the European Union.

Airline Disputes Family’s Account of Woman Left at O’Hare

American Airlines says closed-circuit television footage at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport shows a 67-year-old woman in a wheelchair wasn’t apparently upset or left alone as long as her family claims.

American released a timeline that shows Olimpia Warsaw was alone 1 ¼ hours after her flight was canceled late Friday — during which time Warsaw twice used a walker to go outside to smoke.

Relatives have said they didn’t know Warsaw was stranded until she failed to arrive in Detroit. American says the porter assigned to stay with her made a six-minute telephone call to Warsaw’s son less than an hour after the flight was canceled.

Warsaw’s son, Claude Coltea, says American can “condense the timeline all they want,” but the call wasn’t made until nearly three hours after Warsaw first boarded the plane and that the porter left Warsaw alone.

Dollar General: Fiscal 3Q Earnings Snapshot

Dollar General Corp. (DG) on Tuesday reported fiscal third-quarter net income of $334.1 million.

On a per-share basis, the Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based company said it had net income of $1.26.

The results met Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 23 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was also for earnings of $1.26 per share.

The discount retailer posted revenue of $6.42 billion in the period, beating Street forecasts. Twenty-three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $6.39 billion.

Dollar General expects full-year earnings to be $5.85 to $6.05 per share.

Dollar General shares have increased 20 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has increased slightly more than 4 percent. The stock has risen 27 percent in the last 12 months.

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