Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making the headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: First Quantum Minerals Ltd. found itself with a new suitor as rumours swirled about a potential takeover by another mining giant. Shares in the Vancouver-based copper miner recently lost about half their value after the Panamanian government ordered the company to close a mine, but First Quantum’s stock price surged amid media reports that it might soon be taken over. Meanwhile, new figures showed a distinct cooling in Canada’s largest real estate markets and Tesla is no longer the top of its field.
Also: Canadians took stock of their post-pandemic financial situation, a French grocer stopped stocking a particular brand and the stock of a particular tech firm was subject to a downgrade.
a. The Dutchie. The Dutchie, as well as the Cinnamon Sugar Twist, Blueberry Fritter and Walnut Crunch, will be available starting Jan. 10 for a limited time.
b. They are slightly worse off. Canadians’ real gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is lower than before the pandemic by about US$200. Canada is one of only eight (out of 38) advanced economies to see a slide in this key metric, according to the Business Council of British Columbia.
d. Up 39 per cent. Since 2015, the last full year of the Harper government, the number of federal civil servants has expanded by 100,213, a jump of 39 per cent.
a. BYD of China. BYD of China sold 526,400 electric vehicles in the final quarter of 2023, surpassing Tesla, which delivered 484,500.
b. Apple. Analyst Tim Long explained his downgrade by pointing to lacklustre sales of the iPhone 15 and increased regulatory scrutiny of Apple’s service business.
c. 55 per cent. The past year was the first in which renewable sources of power generated more than half the electricity on Germany’s power grids.
c. Online travel agents. In what may not be an entirely unrelated development, several online ticket agents have suddenly stopped selling Ryanair flights.
d. The president of Harvard University. Claudine Gay is the second president of an Ivy League university to resign after an appearance on Dec. 5 before a congressional hearing that probed how university administrations handled antisemitism on campus.
a. 46-per-cent lower. There were roughly 66,000 residential sales in Toronto last year, 46-per-cent below the record number of sales in 2021.
d. “A distraction and embarrassment.” The National Labor Relations Board in the U.S. alleges SpaceX violated the workers’ right to band together and ask for better working conditions.
c. PepsiCo. Carrefour has made it a policy to challenge big consumer companies over price increases.
b. Barrick Gold. Barrick reportedly spoke to some of First Quantum’s biggest shareholders late last year to probe their interest in a potential takeover.