The Peak Daily

Six companies, including the famous Boston Dynamics (BD), pledged  not to weaponize  or support the weaponization of their robots, and urged others to follow suit. A nurse, an accountant, and an engineer walk into a province. They all get jobs. That’s one of several cheeky ads, paid for by the government of Alberta, taking over Canada’s busiest transit stations lately. It’s all part of a $2.6M “Al...

Starting today, you might see a new surcharge on your receipt when you tap your plastic. Businesses in Canada are now allowed to pass  credit card processing fees  onto customers. OPEC+, the Middle Eastern energy cartel that accounts for 40% of the world’s oil supply, agreed to cut its collective output by  2 million barrels a day  or roughly 2% of global output. Wannabe McKinsey consultants and B...

Phil Collins and Genesis no longer have publishing rights to their recordings. But they aren’t throwing it all away . They’re the most recent musicians to receive a hefty sum for them. HSBC has launched a review into its Canadian business that could end in a US$9B sale, as the bank faces pressure to ditch less profitable markets to focus on Asia and Europe. After all the bot disputes. The whistleb...

Francois Legault will stay in power as Quebec’s premier as his centre-right nationalist CAQ party secured a majority government in a cakewalk. Credit Suisse saw a gauge of its credit risk rise to a record high while its stock hit record lows, raising doubts about its financial stability. From Nike, to Walmart, to Canadian Tire, retailers and brands have more merch than they know what to do with as...

Canada Post has expanded its MyMoney  loan program in partnership with TD Bank to locations across Canada, offering loans between $1000 and $30,000, with approval in as little as 10 minutes. Text messages  made public as part of Elon Musk’s court fight with Twitter (along with being highly entertaining) shed insight into his early motivations for buying the business and show how Silicon Valley hea...

Google announced at its Search On conference that it’s testing updates to Search and Maps that will push its flagship tools in a “visual-forward” direction . An ownership group including NBA superstar LeBron James bought a professional pickleball team that will join Major League Pickleball (MLP) for its upcoming season. Russia will annex four regions in Ukraine today after tightly controlled “refe...

Employers have come up with a novel idea to retain and sustain their workforce during these trying times. You may have heard of it. It’s called ‘paying people more.’ IT giant Cloudflare introduced a new breed of CAPTCHA test called Turnstile that promises to reduce the average test time from 32 seconds to one second. A new drug slowed the rate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients in large-...

Vancouver-based International Battery Metals claims to have developed a first-of-its-kind mobile lithium mining plant that can extract and process lithium with minimal environmental impact. There’s buyer’s remorse over that late-night Amazon purchase, and then there’s real buyer’s remorse (to the tune of $1 trillion)—the latter is what China is experiencing right now as it tries to salvage its tro...

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the UN body responsible for setting global communications standards, will elect its new leader this week—a decision that could shape the future of the internet . The British economy is experiencing some serious turbulence—or an omnishambles, they might say across the pond—as investors give a big thumbs down to the UK government’s new fiscal plan. S...

Russia’s decision to mobilize military reserves for the first time since WWII has triggered a crisis, as protests erupt and men flee to neighbouring countries. Block is rolling out out  BNPL options on its point-of-sale platform, Square. Canada has joined a new US-led alliance aimed at  strengthening ties with Indo-Pacific nations —which  include Australia, New Zealand, and dozens of Asian countri...

Canada Jetlines  flew its inaugural flight yesterday carrying passengers from Toronto Pearson to Calgary International Airport. The unexpected casualty of Quebec’s new language laws: OtterBoxes. For our last story, Forget maple syrup and Tim’s franchises, the two Canadian exports everyone is clamouring for are critical minerals and natural gas.  South Korea  is the latest country to express intere...

Congratulations to anyone with a US bank account, because the currency is on a tear. Meet Flippy, Sippy, and Chippy. No, they aren’t knockoff versions of Snap, Crackle, and Pop. They’re a trio of service robots, and they could soon be preparing your fast food order. TikTok is banning accounts for politicians, parties, and governments from asking for donations and from using monetary features like...

Canadian consumer prices fell 0.3% last month, the biggest monthly drop in two years. Spotify launched its long-awaited audiobooks feature in the US and will eventually roll it out in all of its markets as it strives to become the one-stop-shop for everything audio. Russian-installed leaders in the occupied Eastern Ukrainian provinces of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia have announced p...

Toronto-based video site Rumble , which bills itself as a free speech alternative to sites like YouTube, went public after a successful SPAC merger valuing the company at US$2 billion. While Ukraine’s war efforts have garnered positive results in recent weeks, its economic prospects are looking increasingly bleak as it continues to seek outside help. Porsche, owned by Volkswagen Group, will debut...

If you’ve been on the internet this week, there’s a good chance you already know that the Michelin guide awarded its first Canadian stars to  13 restaurants . Offices are back up and running, but employers are having trouble actually filling them with employees… who remain perfectly fine at home  thank you very much . Uber confirmed its internal systems  suffered a breach perpetrated by someone al...

Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, along with his family, gave away control of the ~US$3 billion company to a trust and a nonprofit organization tackling environmental issues. Adobe agreed to buy design software company Figma for US$20 billion in what will be the largest acquisition ever of a private software company if it gets approved. Walmart has launched its Be Your Own Model tool, which uses a...

Ethereum, a blockchain platform supporting over 50% of the total value of the decentralized finance industry, is shifting to a less energy-intensive way of validating transactions. Shopify restaffed most of its leadership team during the pandemic, and now the top brass of what was once Canada’s most valuable company isn’t looking very Canadian . European energy executives are doing a little too we...

Join us for a live recording of The Peak Daily at the Bet on Canada Summit on November 8th. Buy tickets here: https://readthepeak.com/events/bet-on-canada-2022 As we await the start of Twitter v. Elon Musk (October 17 if you want to mark your calendar) the final pieces are falling into place for the tech trial of the century. The federal government gave small businesses $49 billion in pandemic loa...

In 2021, 50 million people across the globe were in some form of modern slavery , including 28 million working under forced labour conditions, per a new UN report. If you’re kicking yourself over a bad stock pick recently, we’re here to tell you that even the safest investments are losing money this year. That’s right, a key index tracking global bonds has dropped 16.8% since January. Climate Proo...

Canada’s unemployment rate is up for the first time in seven months, which means that high interest rates have ( done what they do best  and) thrown cold water on the red hot labour market. The US Justice Department (DOJ) is accusing Google of paying companies  billions each year  to remain the default search engine on browsers, illegally. Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OS...

The federal government announced a new three-pronged plan to introduce temporary relief measures aimed at helping low-income Canadians beat back inflation pains. Speaking of the wealthy doing more than their fair share of spending, the superyacht rental business is booming as the well-to-do want to hit the high seas in luxury and comfort. Corporate swag bags may soon become an ancient relic of the...

As expected, the BoC delivered another oversized rate hike , bumping the overnight interest rates up to 3.25% from 2.50% (or 75 basis points, if you’re fancy like that). Apple held its latest product launch event , dubbed Far Out, yesterday, announcing a range of new goodies including the iPhone 14 and the Apple Watch Ultra. Freaked-out investors are pouring money into the US while pulling out of...

Record-high natural gas prices are climbing higher, sending inflation soaring across the region. According to the European Commission (EC), fixing prices could be an answer. Despite a year full of big electric vehicle (EV) announcements, Canada has fallen further behind its global peers in the race to electrify the roadways. Canada is the worst-performing G7 nation for reducing corporate sector ca...

G7 nations have agreed to impose  a cap on the price of Russian oil  imports, despite Russian threats to cut off cold turkey any country that tries to mess with its energy business. The pumpkin spice latte isn’t the only hot arrival at Starbucks this fall. The company is bringing in  a new CEO  to oversee grand ambitions to modernize its espresso-slinging business. If you’re planning to buy an iPa...

The US is blocking chipmaker Nvidia from selling some of its advanced products to China, according to the company’s latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Disney is exploring the creation of an Amazon Prime-like membership , per The Wall Street Journal . A new study from environmental advocacy group Environmental Defence that tested items from Canadian dollar stores found that...