OVHCloud Quebec data centre servers, on Oct 15th, 2025.Supplied
Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s business and investing news quiz. Join us each week to test your knowledge of the stories making headlines. Our business reporters come up with the questions, and you can show us what you know.
This week: Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management is going big on data centres, while Taylor Swift uses some creative sales tactics to hoist her new album to the top of the charts. What is she doing? Take our quiz and find out.
d. Stellantis says it is moving production of the Jeep Compass to Illinois from Brampton, Ont., as part of a US$13-billion plan to boost production in the United States. Ottawa is threatening to sue the automaker over the move.
c. Silver prices hit a record peak this week as investors flocked to the perceived security of precious metals. Silver is now trading around US$53 a troy ounce, well above its long-standing record of US$48.70, set in January, 1980, when the Hunt brothers unsuccessfully tried to corner the market for the precious metal. Silver still has some distance to go, though, before it can claim to be a great long-term investment. As the Wall Street Journal noted, the metal would have to surpass US$200 a troy ounce to beat its 1980 peak in inflation-adjusted terms.
b. The International Monetary Fund. Uh-oh. Global markets are getting too comfortable with risks such as trade wars and yawning government deficits, the IMF said. Combined with already overpriced assets, investors’ lack of caution increases the chance of a “disorderly” market correction.
c. J.P. Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon. Mr. Dimon told analysts on a call that he is growing concerned about lax lending standards in the wake of recent bankruptcies at companies such as First Brands, an auto-parts supplier that had accumulated billions of dollars in debt. “My antenna goes up when things like that happen,” Dimon said. “And I probably shouldn’t say this, but when you see one cockroach, there are probably more … Everyone should be forewarned on this.”
a. Use fuel cells to power data centres. Brookfield Asset Management said it will help deploy fuel cells built by Silicon Valley-based Bloom Energy Corp. The cells will power data centres geared to the latest artificial-intelligence technologies.
a. Innovation. Prof. Howitt co-authored the seminal 1992 paper entitled “A Model of Growth Through Creative Destruction.” It created a mathematical model of innovation and economic growth.
d. Data centres. Did we mention everyone loves data centres these days? An investment consortium that includes BlackRock, Nvidia, xAI and Microsoft has announced plans to acquire Aligned Data Centers in a deal worth US$40-billion. Data centres, which house huge arrays of data crunching and networking equipment, have become critical components for delivering cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
b. HOOPP. The Netherlands Public Prosecution Service said it is “summoning a foreign pension fund” to a criminal court on suspicion that the pension plan wrongly claimed refunds on dividend tax withheld between 2013 and 2018. HOOPP confirmed it is the object of the investigation, but said in a statement it “firmly rejects” the allegations.
d. Dividend increases. Bell Canada executives are not planning to increase the company’s dividend for the next three years, and instead are focusing on funding the company's emerging divisions and paying down debt, chief financial officer Curtis Millen said in an interview.
b. It is allowing retirees to earn income tax-free. Germany is introducing an “active pension” that lets people who choose to work past the statutory retirement age earn up to €2,000 per month ($3,250 Canadian) tax-free. Labour Minister Bärbel Bas framed the new measure as a way to keep experienced workers in the labour market.
c. Its number of versions. Ms. Swift sold more than four million copies of her new album in the first week after she released The Life of a Showgirl on Oct. 3. Billboard credits part of those gigantic sales to the multiple ways in which fans could buy the song collection. Ms. Swift put out 38 variations, including CDs, vinyl records, digital downloads and a cassette, some of which featured acoustic versions of certain songs, voice memos and even jewellery.
a. The Hudson’s Bay point blanket. Canadian Tire will soon begin selling the distinctive Hudson's Bay point blanket. It is the first product launch since Canadian Tire acquired Hudson’s Bay intellectual property during its bankruptcy proceedings. All proceeds from the blanket sales will go to Indigenous-led initiatives.