What is Meta’s new artificial intelligence app called? Take our business and investing news quiz for the week ending Sept. 25

d. Talk about growing together. Mr. Carney voiced the proposal after U.S. President Donald Trump toyed with switching to Belarus as a supplier of potash, a major ingredient in crop fertilizer. Canada currently supplies about 85 per cent of the United States’ potash needs.

b. High Art has paid $22.3-million for 43 unsold condo units in midtown Toronto. The company intends to turn the newly built units into rentals. It is backed by $300-million in financing from the Ontario government through its Building Ontario Fund, which was formed in 2024 to invest with private investors in infrastructure deemed critical for the province. Hmmm. How do condos qualify as critical infrastructure? Excellent question.

c. The benchmark U.S. 10-year yield, which influences borrowing rates around the world, touched 5.14 per cent, which is where it was in 2007 before the global financial crisis dragged yields lower. Lingering inflation, rising fiscal deficits and huge borrowing by AI companies are among the factors driving bond yields and interest rates higher – a development that is not good news for stocks or for home buyers.

b. U.S. business activity raced to a more than a five-year high in September, according to S&P Global’s U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors. The index increased to 58.4 this month, its highest level since July, 2021. But there is a downside to all that activity: It is straining supply chains and pushing prices higher.

c. Muse lets users delegate a wide variety of tasks – ordering groceries, booking travel, organizing personal finances – to an AI agent. Its fans say Muse could shake up everything from banking to retailing by automatically finding the best and cheapest deal for whatever goods or services a user might be buying. To be sure, the prospect of a superintelligent bargain-hunter might not be universally welcomed, especially by the people peddling goods and services.

a. At least according to government pension guidelines, “normal” retirement age is still 65 in Canada. In many other developed countries, it is 66 or 67 – and moving higher.

d. The B.C. government has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence company OpenAI over the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., asserting “one telephone call to the RCMP could have prevented the tragedy.” The province says that OpenAI failed to warn police of alarming interactions between the shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, and the company’s ChatGPT product.

a. Telesat shares have performed superbly thanks in part to the company landing a federal-government contract to provide broadband connectivity in the Arctic for the Canadian military. Oddly, though, the company’s debt is trading at distressed levels, suggesting debt holders believe there’s a possibility they won’t be paid back in full. Count on some drama ahead.

d. Maple Leaf purchased Yves Veggie Cuisine, a 40-year-old Canadian brand, late last year. The company hopes the revamped Yves lineup will fare better than its previous attempt to enter the plant-based protein area. That effort ended in failure when Maple Leaf, like rivals such as Beyond Meat, discovered that consumers were slow to switch to pricey, unfamiliar plant-based alternatives.

a. Mr. Buffett’s son, Howard Buffett, is the new chairman. He has been a director of Berkshire since 1993. The elder Buffett will now become chairman emeritus.

b. Mr. Mélenchon says the Banque de France could simply take bonds accumulated during years of quantitative easing by the European Central Bank and “throw them in the fire.” Um, sure.

c. Mr. Trump has made clear he wants to impress Mr. Xi. The Republican president made sure construction of a new helicopter landing pad on the White House’s South Lawn was completed before the visit.