Quiz of the week 23-29 January

1. Elon Musk’s SpaceX acquired two offshore oil rigs near Texas for $7m. Musk plans to transform them into what?

• a. SpaceX HQ
• b. Rental homes
• c. Launchpads for SpaceX’s Mars mission
• d. For his wife to keep her cars on

2. Which video game and electronics retailer was involved in a trading battle between individual investors and hedge fund managers?

• a. Reddit
• b. GameStop
• c. Best Buy
• d. Sam’s Club

3. A geologist found a rock formation in the shape of a beloved Sesame Street character this week, and is now receiving bids of $10,000 for the unique geode. Which character was it?

• a. Big Bird
• b. Elmo
• c. Bert
• d. Cookie Monster

4. Napoleon Bonaparte’s written account of his victory in the Battle of Austerlitz, widely regarded as his finest victory, is going on sale in Paris for €1m as part of the Brussels Art Fair. But when was the Battle of Austerlitz?

• a. 1802
• b. 1805
• c. 1808
• d. 1804

5. The average downpayment for a first home has set buyers back an extra £10,000, jumping 23% to £57,278 from 2019. In London, the average deposit stands at £130,357. The average first-time buyer’s age also changed from 30 a decade ago to what age now?

• a. 27
• b, 32
• c. 31
• d. It’s still 30

6. Online fashion retailer Boohoo Group is set to buy Debenhams for £55m. Rival ASOS is in talks to acquire which Arcadia-owned high-street retailer that fell into administration?

• a. Peacocks
• b. Victoria’s Secret
• c. Quiz
• d. Topshop

7. Which Chinese internet company’s market capitlisation crept higher to $1trn this week?

• a. Tencent
• b. Baidu
• c. Alibaba
• d. Taobao

8. Despite strong sales growth, which British supermarket fell £25m into the red after it acquired 51 new shops, opened a new distribution centre and expanded 13 sites for £654m?

• a. Lidl
• b. Aldi
• c. Morrisons
• d. Tesco

9. Samantha Cameron, former prime minister David Cameron’s wife, attributed her fashion brand’s trading “teething issues” to what?

• a. Coronavirus
• b. Brexit
• c. People not liking David Cameron
• d. A lack of advertising avenues during the pandemic

10. The sovereign wealth fund of which country made gains of £90bn during 2020, taking its total value to £932bn?

• a. Saudi Arabia
• b. Norway
• c. Singapore
• d. Japan

Answers

1. c. Launchpads for SpaceX’s Mars mission. Musk purchased the oil rigs, renamed Deimos and Phoibos after Mars’ two moons, and is in the process of converting them into spaceports for SpaceX’s Mars-bound Starship mission.

2. b. GameStop. Amateur investors poured money into GameStop after it was heavily shorted by hedge funds. The GameStop share price is up by more than 1,700% since the start of January.

3. d. Cookie Monster. Mike Bowers found the blue agate in Brazil, but hasn’t decided yet if he’ll sell.

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4. b. 1805. The 74-page report of the battle also features a map. Napoleon’s words were taken down by General Henri-Gatien Bertrand, whose family kept it until 1970 when it was found by a gallery owner in Paris.

5. c. 31. Despite the increase in age and deposit size, the first-time buyer market still made up half of all house purchases.

6. d. Topshop. ASOS is in exclusive talks with Arcadia Group to purchase Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge for up to £300m.

7. a. Tencent. Tencent surged to a value of $949bn after its share price rallied before dropping back to around $890m. The company owns WeChat, a messaging app that also allows users to read the news, pay bills, and order food, as well as several other streaming, advertising and music businesses.

8. a. Lidl. The business made a pre-tax profit of £19m last year, but the restructuring led to losses. It plans to open another 50 shops, build a new warehouse, and shift its HQ to southwest London this year for around £1.3bn.

9. b. Brexit. Cameron said her fashion brand, Cefinn, was finding post-Brexit trading with the EU difficult and appealed on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour programme to the government to talk to small firms .

10. b. Norway. The fund, founded in 1969, now holds £170,000 for each of Norway’s 5.3 million inhabitants.