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: Earning season continued. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board reported that it earned 3.4 per cent in its latest quarter. It ended 2023 with nearly $591-billion in assets, up from $576-billion at the end of the previous quarter. Meanwhile, Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International (RBI) reported on Tuesday that its net income more than doubled in the fourth quarter, to US$726-million compared with US$336-million in the same period the prior year. And Canadian Tire Corp. reported a 67.6-per-cent decline in net income in its fourth quarter.
Also: An audit drew some sharp words, Amazon’s founder drew some raised eyebrows and Lyft drew some (brief) excitement.
d. Auditor General of Canada Karen Hogan. Ms. Hogan lambasted Canada Border Services for its slipshod development of the ArriveCan app during the pandemic. The agency spend just $80,000 to create the initial version of the smartphone app, but allowed the subsequent cost to swell to an estimated $59.5-million as a result of poorly documented contracts with private developers and consultants.
d. It plunged. Shopify stock tumbled 13 per cent despite double-digit revenue growth and impressive profitability. Investors were not impressed by its outlook for the months ahead.
a. Tiger Woods’ new clothing line. Mr. Woods ended his 27-year partnership with Nike earlier this year. The golfer is teaming up with TaylorMade Golf to develop his new line.
b. A typo in an earnings announcement. Oops. The typo indicated Lyft’s profit margin is set to jump by 500 basis points during the coming year. (A basis point is one hundredth of a percentage point.) The actual forecast is for an increase of 50 basis points.
a. Its highest point in more than two years. Bitcoin’s price has surged as a result of U.S. regulators giving the go-ahead to bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
c. $280,000. Tim Hortons franchisees saw their EBITDA jump 27 per cent in 2023 to an average $280,000 per restaurant. However, that is still below the $320,000 in EBITDA that a typical store produced in 2018.
c. Sold billions of dollars worth of Amazon stock. Mr. Bezos, who stepped down as Amazon’s chief executive in 2021 to spend more time on his other projects, has indicated he intends to sell shares with an estimated market value of US$8.4-billion.
a. Power Corp. of Canada. Mr. Lawrence had once been considered a candidate for the top job at Scotiabank. He is now thought to be in the running for the chief executive slot at Power.
d. 40 per cent. If an immediate 40-per-cent fall doesn’t sound appealing, the alternatives aren’t much better. The market could also come back into balance if home prices stagnated for more than 10 years, the report estimated.
c. Around 9 per cent. The CPPIB, which helps fund Canadians’ pensions, reported this week that its returns have averaged 9.3 per cent a year over the past decade.
b. Chip maker Nvidia. Nvidia has soared as technology companies race to build AI into their products and services. Nvidia controls about 80 per cent of the high-end AI chip market.
Ian McGugan