What is TD Bank Group investing up to $10-billion in? Take our business and investing news quiz for the week ending Oct. 2

c. The report, written by Trevor Tombe, a University of Calgary economist, warns that a swing toward secession would impose heavy costs for Alberta, with investment in the province plunging by 12 per cent or more and budget surpluses turning into deficits. Prof. Tombe says the damage to Alberta’s economy would make the pain endured by Britain after Brexit look like a “cakewalk.”

d. TD Bank said it plans to repurchase up to nearly 4 per cent of its shares over the next few months. Investors may want to ask why. Buybacks make sense when a company feels its shares are undervalued. But does TD management really consider its shares – up more than 45 per cent over the past year – to be a screaming deal? Just asking.

a. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said this week that it will delay certification of Boeing’s long-delayed 737 MAX 10 until a newly disclosed software issue is resolved. The latest glitch follows earlier problems with the 737 MAX automatic flight control software that caused two crashes in 2018 and 2019, as well as a 2024 incident in which a door plug blew out of the side of a 737 MAX mid-flight.

a. The new platform has brought extended trading hours to Canada, allowing investors to buy and sell domestic stocks earlier in the morning and well into the evening. That is, um, great.

d. After a strong start to the year, the U.S. IPO market has hit a bump as investors reassess lofty valuations and debate whether massive spending on AI infrastructure is sustainable. Among the companies deciding to delay their public market debuts are Oura, nuclear services company Holtec and Bamboo Insurance.

b. Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs bought Stelco for $3.4-billion in 2024, but only after agreeing to conditions laid down by the federal government. Those conditions included a promise by Cliffs to maintain unionized employment levels for at least five years. So has the company now breached that commitment? The devil is in the details, according to legal experts.

b. London-based Shell PLC owns the largest stake in LNG Canada at 40 per cent, followed by Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas (25 per cent), Japan-based Mitsubishi (15 per cent), PetroChina (15 per cent) and South Korea’s Kogas (5 per cent).

a. Manchester City was found guilty by an independent panel of arranging “sham” contracts as part of a slew of financial breaches that helped the Abu Dhabi-owned club dominate English soccer over a nine-year period. City’s alleged financial wrongdoing was worth in excess of £900-million ($1.69-billion). The team now faces severe sanctions.

b. Carnival raised its annual profit forecast this week and pointed to record 2027 bookings. The company has been benefiting from affluent travellers who continue to prioritize experiences, particularly sea voyages and bucket-list adventures. Hmmm. Say what you will about the Middle East or rising bond yields, but many consumers seem to be doing just fine, thank you.

c. The Washington-based Institute of International Finance recently estimated that advanced economies paid more than US$3.3-trillion in interest on internationally traded government bonds over the past year. The bill for interest payments surpassed the US$3.1-trillion spent on defence, the US$2.6-trillion spent on artificial intelligence and the US$2.3-trillion spent on clean energy. If bond yields keep rising, interest payments will surge even higher.

c. First Quantum shares plummeted after a government-commissioned study in Panama recommended negotiating a new arrangement that could allow a temporary restart of the Cobre Panama mine to facilitate its orderly closing. The study marks another development in the long-running dispute over the mine, which was responsible for 1 per cent of copper production worldwide until Panama’s government shuttered it in 2023 after protests from local residents over tax contributions and its environmental impact.

d. Lady Gaga is appearing in a stylish black-and-white video for the retail chain’s part-time worker recruitment campaign. Like many other Japanese companies, FamilyMart is grappling with a labour shortage. The retailer boasts a network of more than 16,000 stores across Japan, and roughly 30 per cent of them are short-staffed.