Wendy’s shares fell 3.58% on Friday to close at $6.74, leaving the stock near its 52week low. The move followed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Meritage Hospitality Group, one of the chain’s largest franchise operators. Meritage reported a 48% drop in 2025 storelevel EBITDA and said it owes about $24.9 million in deferred franchise fees. Wendy’s subsequently withdrew its fullyear 2026 outlook.

Rainfall fell below average last week across most of Ivory Coast’s main cocoa-growing regions, with Daloa recording 3.6 mm, 26.1 mm under the norm. Farmers said the dry conditions could threaten the development of small pods to be harvested next year during the September-to-February main crop. They warned the situation could become alarming if the dry spell lasts until mid-October, according to Reuters. Weekly temperatures ranged from 25.6 to 29.7 degrees Celsius.

U.S. stock index futures climbed on Monday, with Dow futures up about 0.7% and S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures also higher. Oil fell to an 11-day low, with Brent at $101.2 a barrel, down 2.6%, and the WTI October contract at $97.80, down 2.5%. Investors are watching an upcoming meeting between U.S. and Chinese leaders while continuing to digest last week’s Federal Reserve rate hike.

Rothschild & Co said it is losing patience with the pace of the turnaround at Flutter’s FanDuel and cut its price target to $119 from $169. The firm said FanDuel has reduced guidance four straight times, most recently lowering its 2026 EBITDA midpoint forecast by 22%. It described 2026 as another “transitional year” and said the turnaround is likely to take longer than anticipated. Flutter shares are down 58% in 2026.

Chinese AI startup Moonshot AI has made its flagship open-source model, Kimi K3, available on Amazon Web Services’ Amazon Bedrock platform for building generative AI applications. The model is offered under revised commercial licensing terms that require payment if a hosting provider’s annual revenue exceeds US$20 million. AWS has said its AI business has surpassed a US$25 billion annual revenue run rate, putting the partnership in focus as a test of monetizing Chinese open models through third-party cloud platforms.

Critical Metals surged more than 25% in premarket trading on September 21, after the rare earth developer reported a processing breakthrough at its Tanbreez project. The company said it achieved more than 99% dissolution of eudialyte concentrate and produced 19 ultra-high-purity rare earth products. A preliminary study for a proposed Romanian refinery projected annual revenue potential of roughly $2.2 billion before operating costs, taxes, and capital recovery. BlackRock is the company’s largest pure institutional shareholder, holding about 4.52 million shares.

Ennis Inc. reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $9.4 million, or 37 cents per share. Revenue for the period was $102 million. The figures were part of a routine earnings release and did not include any information on performance versus expectations or forward guidance.

India’s Sensex and Nifty rose sharply at 2:11 pm, with the Sensex up 0.87% to 74,944 and the Nifty gaining 0.47% to 23,455. Brent crude fell 2.25% to $101.53 a barrel and WTI slid 2.19% to $98.10, easing pressure on India’s import costs.