What happened to Shopify’s stock that shocked analysts? Take our business quiz for the week of February 16

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.


1“This audit shows a glaring disregard for basic management and contracting practices.” Who said that this week?

a. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre

b. Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie

c. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

d. Auditor General of Canada Karen Hogan

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.

2Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce company, announced earnings this week that blew away analysts’ expectations. What did its stock do?

a. It rose

b. It barely budged

c. It fell a little

d. It plunged

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.

3What is Sun Day Red?

a. Tiger Woods’ new clothing line

b. An album of pop songs from Travis Kelce, the football player who is dating Taylor Swift

c. A new TV series in which China uses a space-mounted mirror to threaten the world with solar annihilation

d. Meta Platforms’ code name for virtual reality software

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.

4

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Bill Gates on ‘Super Mean’ Elon Musk After He Shorted Tesla Stock

  • Elon Musk shot down Bill Gates’ attempts to talk about giving to charity after Gates shorted Tesla stock.
  • “He was super mean to me, but he’s super mean to so many people, so you can’t take it too personally,” Gates said.
  • Their exchange was detailed in an excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography of Musk.

An excerpt of an upcoming biography of Elon Musk shed light on what Musk and Bill Gates thought of each other following a negative exchange over Gates taking a short position against Musk’s Tesla.

Walter Isaacson, a writer who spent three years trailing the Tesla CEO, said that in early 2022, Gates was talking to Musk about philanthropy, having proposed that Musk donate to refugees, American education, finding a cure for AIDS, mosquito eradication, and climate-resistant seeds.

Isaacson detailed Gates’ and Musk’s encounter in his forthcoming biography, “Elon Musk.” The book is set to be published on September 12. CNBC ran an excerpt of the biography on Sunday.

After their initial chat, when Gates followed up with Musk again in April via text, Musk shot back: “Sorry. I cannot take your philanthropy on climate seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change.”

Shorting a stock means an investor is betting on its value to drop. Musk said in April 2022 that Gates had taken a half-billion dollar short position against Tesla.

Speaking about this incident to Isaacson, Gates told the writer he even apologized to Musk. 

“Once he heard I’d shorted the stock, he was super mean to me, but he’s super mean to so many people, so you can’t take it too personally,” Gates told Isaacson. 

Gates also told Isaacson his decision was a business move, as he anticipated the supply of electric vehicles would soon outpace demand, leading to a price drop.

The full text exchange between Musk and Gates — which Isaacson recounted in the biography — was first leaked online in April 2022. Musk confirmed its authenticity on Twitter.

 

Explaining how he heard of the short, Musk tweeted: “I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret.”

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Business News, Finance News, Market News, Stock News, Bse, Nse, Nifty

Indian shares end flat; Goldman sees upside dangers to $90 a barrel forecast; Evergrande EV unit shares jump and extra. Judicial Watch, a government transparency watchdog group, announced Tuesday that it has obtained paperwork allegedly displaying California officials colluding with social media giants to censor speech surrounding the 2020 elections – together with a few of its own posts. Ownership of leisure autos is on the rise and with improved technology, an attractive lure for many who can hit the road to travel, or work, wherever they select. Now he desires to lead a local weather change revolution — and beat the fossil gas giants along the way. News Corp is a worldwide, diversified media and information services company centered on creating and distributing authoritative and interesting content material and other products and services. Facebook’s business has continued to level out energy regardless of broader financial challenges and growing concern about the societal influence of its social network.

  • Organizers representing greater than 2,000 staff filed the petition to the National Labor Relations Board workplace in Brooklyn.
  • Intel Corp. shares plummeted on Friday to the lowest level since January after the chipmaker reported third-quarter results and detailed a spending plan that it said would pressure profitability over the subsequent few years.
  • Tata Power and IIT-Delhi have signed an MoU to collaborate in areas corresponding to good grid know-how, clean vitality options, an organization assertion stated.
  • A joint statement issued by the CR and WR clarified that solely classes identified by the federal government as on date are permitted to journey as per the usual working procedures .
  • Bharat Bond ETF is an exchange-traded fund that invests in debt of public sector corporations.

Now, firm documents present, it’s struggling to deal with their results. As the power sector reinvents itself, it wants new abilities, so new job alternatives are opening up, particularly for girls, including those who need to use their skills and skills to handle climate change. Here is insightful career advice from two top ladies on seizing these new opportunities. The authorities had accepted a suggestion by Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company, to pay ₹2,seven-hundred crore cash and take over ₹15,300 crore of the airline’s debt.

Monetary Instances House

Stocks have been pushing broadly larger as firms turn in a lot stronger profit reports for the summer time than analysts had anticipated. WASHINGTON — Children underneath … Read more

Business News, Financial News, Market News, Share Market News, Indian Stock Market News

Bitcoin is ready to use 91TWh of power by the end of 2021, which is as much electrical energy as Pakistan makes use of in a yr. Binance has already confronted warnings and business curbs from financial watchdogs in other countries, including the UK and Germany. The Chinese property group has sparked fears it may default on its €240 billion debts, but analysts say it is unlikely to trigger a global crisis. It is the first major social network to encourage cryptocurrencies as a way of cost.

Business News

LAS VEGAS — Nevada is allocating $5 million in federal coronavirus pandemic help for a program the governor and state treasurer on Monday mentioned will present grants to youngsters with disabilities and their households. OMAHA, Neb. — The Kellogg Co. is attempting to steer its 1,four hundred striking cereal-making employees to return to the bargaining desk. The Battle Creek, Michigan-based firm mentioned Monday that it despatched a message to the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union that represents these employees offering to renew contract talks. STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — The only bidder for administration of Georgia’s Confederate-themed, state-owned Stone Mountain Park is a model new firm created by an official of the corporate that’s pulling out, the park’s governing board said Monday.

We Count On Gold Imports To Rise Additional In Coming Months: Gjepc

WASHINGTON — The White House is zeroing in on a bundle of unpolluted energy methods for President Joe Biden’s big domestic policy invoice that officials consider could reach related greenhouse gasoline emission reduction goals as an preliminary proposal that was quashed by opposition. As international borders slowly reopen, Australians are being urged to use a travel agent to rebook their cancelled holidays to ensure they don’t lose out. Five years on from South Australia’s statewide blackout, know-how to additional stabilise the power grid has been successfully put in at two websites in the state’s north. For a fourth day in a row on Friday, technical glitches marred makes an attempt by Salvadorans to download and use the nation’s new digital pockets. Switzerland has turn out to be the newest country to clear the means in which for buying and selling digital property with a new stock trade. A safety flaw affecting Apple’s iMessage made even the most recent units weak to an infection by Pegasus spyware that hit tens of 1000’s together with French President Macron.… Read more

Business News, Finance News, Market News, Stock News, Bse, Nse, Nifty

WASHINGTON -U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed an order imposing new vaccine necessities for most overseas nationwide air vacationers and lifting severe journey restrictions on China, India and far of Europe effective Nov. 8, the White House stated. HOUSTON -Locked-out workers at Exxon Mobil Corp’s Beaumont, Texas, refinery will vote between Nov. 12 and Dec. 22 in a mail-in ballot on whether to remove the United Steelworkers union from representing them, according to the company and union. Oil costs edged decrease on Tuesday, taking a breather from a sustained rally pushed by sturdy demand within the United States, the world’s biggest shopper of oil and its products. Consumer goods large Unilever says high rates of value inflation will continue into subsequent yr. ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan late Monday stepped back from a risk to expel the ambassadors of 10 Western nations over their assist for a jailed activist, defusing a potential diplomatic crisis.

Business News

NEW YORK — The Treasury Department has employed a former JPMorgan Chase govt to head a model new authorities program aimed at combatting racial inequality issues in banking and different financial-services industries. LOS ANGELES — In an effort to ease congestion on the nation’s busiest port advanced, officers said Monday that they’ll start fining delivery companies whose cargo containers linger for too long at marine terminals. TOKYO — Asian shares had been largely higher Tuesday after one other rally to a record high on Wall Street.

Marketwatch

Facebook stories the next profit for the latest quarter, amid fallout from the Facebook Papers paperwork supporting claims that the social community values monetary success over user safety. Tesla market capTesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to have fun the EV maker reaching the milestone $1 trillion market capitalisation, apart from expressing surprise on the velocity of the share price surge. Tesla Inc. shares rallied to a document excessive on Friday, taking the electric-vehicle maker one other step nearer to becoming a member of an elite group of firms with market valuations of at least $1 trillion. Walmart Inc. is about to begin calling its company staff again to the office after greater than a yr and a half of distant work through the coronavirus pandemic.

  • Black-owned banks tend to be better at discerning profitable lending alternatives in Black communities.
  • Indian shares end flat; Goldman sees upside dangers to $90 a barrel forecast; Evergrande EV

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