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MONTREAL - CN and CP shares jump

Canada's two largest railways enjoyed a "Buffet bounce" on Tuesday after legendary U.S. investor Warren Buffet announced he will pay a premium price for Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

Shares of CN Rail (TSX:CNR) and Canadian Pacific (TSX:CP) jumped in early trading on news of the investment by Berkshire Hathaway, which values BNSF at US44 billion, including US$10 billion of debt.

Berkshire Hathaway's offer was valued at US$100 per share in stock and cash, or US$26 billion for about three-quarters of the railway's stock, a 32 per cent premium to Burlington Northern's share price at the end of Monday.

Despite a slight pullback from their peaks, Canadian National's shares closed up 85 cents, or 1.62 per cent, to $53.42, while CP's shares gained $1.38, or 2.92 per cent to $48.60 in trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Edward Jones analyst Dan Ortwerth said the railway industry's appeal was buttressed by the Oracle of Omaha's investment.

"Buffet's move today is really a kind of validation of the positive long-term view of the rail industry that we have," Ortwerth said.

Judge approves Wal-Mart settlement

LAS VEGAS - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. received final approval of a settlement in which it will pay between $65 million and $85 million to resolve wage-and-hour violations alleged by millions of workers.

Nevada District Court Judge Philip M. Pro in Las Vegas issued final approval of the settlement, which covered 39 class action lawsuits across multiple states against the world's largest retailer.

Last December, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company said it would pay as much as $640 million to settle 63 lawsuits over wage-and-hour violations, ending years of dispute. The agreement ended the vast majority of such cases against Wal-Mart, but each settlement still had to be approved by a trial court.

The lawsuits claimed the company failed to compensate workers for off-the-clock work and overtime, altered employee time records and prevented employees from taking breaks for rest and lunch. Settlements have been approved separately over the past several months in Minnesota, Washington and Iowa.

Wal-Mart has said many of the lawsuits were filed years ago and the allegations are not representative of the company Wal-Mart is today. Under the December settlement, Wal-Mart agreed to continue to use various electronic systems in its stores to prevent employees from working off the clock during breaks.

Sources: The Canadian Press and The Associated Press