1 What prominent private equity firm based in Washington DC agreed to acquire the Italian luxury sneaker brand Golden Goose in 2020 and is known for its deep ties to former high ranking government officials?
Answer: CARLYLE (7 letters)
◀ All past puzzles
Finance terms from the week of Monday, April 13, 2026
35 clues and answers from Monday, April 13, 2026 to Sunday, April 19, 2026, each with a plain-language definition where the term is one worth knowing. These puzzles are no longer playable; today's game is on the play page and the last seven days are in the practice archive.
Terms covered: quick, spread, swift, debt, trough, call, oligopoly, split, geometric, thrift, bubble, limit, and more.
Monday, April 13, 2026
2 Which specific financial ratio is used to measure a company's ability to pay off its short term liabilities with its most liquid assets and is often referred to as the acid test?
Answer: QUICK (5 letters)
The quick ratio, or acid test: liquid assets divided by current liabilities, excluding inventory.
3 What specific financial term describes the difference between the price at which a dealer is willing to buy a security and the price at which they are willing to sell it?
Answer: SPREAD (6 letters)
The difference between two prices or rates - between a bond's yield and a government benchmark, or between the bid and ask in a quoted market.
4 What acronym represents the global standard for exchanging financial messages between banks which became a central tool for international sanctions against Russia in early 2022?
Answer: SWIFT (5 letters)
The cooperative that runs the messaging network banks use to instruct cross-border payments.
5 Which major European luxury group owns the brands Gucci and Saint Laurent and saw its shares tumble in 2024 after reporting a sharp slowdown in demand within the critical Asia Pacific market?
Answer: KERING (6 letters)
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
1 What specific economic term describes the total amount of money that a government owes to its creditors and is often measured as a percentage of the national gross domestic product?
Answer: DEBT (4 letters)
Money borrowed that must be repaid, normally with interest, under terms agreed in advance.
2 Which major American bank agreed to acquire the majority of the assets of the failed First Republic Bank in May 2023 following a competitive bidding process overseen by the federal regulators?
Answer: JPMORGAN (8 letters)
3 Which British semiconductor designer backed by SoftBank saw its market capitalization surge toward 150 billion dollars in 2024 as its power efficient architecture became a standard for mobile and artificial intelligence chips?
Answer: ARM (3 letters)
4 What specific technical term describes the lowest point of a business cycle characterized by the end of a period of economic decline and the beginning of a new expansion phase?
Answer: TROUGH (6 letters)
The low point of a business cycle, where contraction ends and recovery begins.
5 What specific financial instrument is a type of derivative that gives the holder the right but not the obligation to buy an underlying asset at a specified price within a certain time frame?
Answer: CALL (4 letters)
A call option, which gives the holder the right to buy an asset at a set price before a set date, without any obligation to do so.
Wednesday, April 15, 2026
1 Which legendary investor and co chairman of Berkshire Hathaway passed away in late 2023 at the age of 99 leaving behind a legacy as the primary architect of the firm's value investing philosophy?
Answer: MUNGER (6 letters)
2 What economic term refers to a market structure where a small number of large firms dominate the industry often leading to limited competition and high barriers to entry for new participants?
Answer: OLIGOPOLY (9 letters)
A market dominated by a small number of sellers, each large enough that its decisions affect the others.
3 Which major United States airline announced a 1.9 billion dollar deal to acquire its rival Hawaiian Airlines in late 2023 marking a significant consolidation in the domestic aviation market?
Answer: ALASKA (6 letters)
4 What word describes a corporate action where a company divides its existing shares into multiple new shares to boost liquidity and make the stock more accessible to retail investors?
Answer: SPLIT (5 letters)
A stock split, where a company divides its existing shares into more shares, lowering the price per share while leaving the total value of a holding unchanged.
5 Which Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz announced a massive 7.2 billion dollar fundraise in 2024 to invest in sectors ranging from gaming to infrastructure?
Answer: ANDREESSEN (10 letters)
Thursday, April 16, 2026
1 Which legendary investor and co chairman of Berkshire Hathaway passed away in late 2023 at the age of 99 leaving behind a legacy as the primary architect of the firm's value investing philosophy?
Answer: MUNGER (6 letters)
2 What economic term refers to a market structure where a small number of large firms dominate the industry often leading to limited competition and high barriers to entry for new participants?
Answer: OLIGOPOLY (9 letters)
A market dominated by a small number of sellers, each large enough that its decisions affect the others.
3 Which major United States airline announced a 1.9 billion dollar deal to acquire its rival Hawaiian Airlines in late 2023 marking a significant consolidation in the domestic aviation market?
Answer: ALASKA (6 letters)
4 What word describes a corporate action where a company divides its existing shares into multiple new shares to boost liquidity and make the stock more accessible to retail investors?
Answer: SPLIT (5 letters)
A stock split, where a company divides its existing shares into more shares, lowering the price per share while leaving the total value of a holding unchanged.
5 Which Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz announced a massive 7.2 billion dollar fundraise in 2024 to invest in sectors ranging from gaming to infrastructure?
Answer: ANDREESSEN (10 letters)
Friday, April 17, 2026
1 What specific measure of central tendency is used in finance to calculate the average return of an investment portfolio over several periods by taking the nth root of the product of the returns?
Answer: GEOMETRIC (9 letters)
The geometric mean, used for investment returns: multiply the period returns together and take the nth root.
2 Which global athletic apparel company saw its shares drop more than 10 percent in early 2024 after it warned of slowing demand and a transition toward newer product lines to stay competitive?
Answer: NIKE (4 letters)
3 Which major technology company announced in 2024 that it would spend 10 billion dollars to build a massive new data center complex in Indiana to support its growing generative artificial intelligence workloads?
Answer: GOOGLE (6 letters)
4 What specific economic term describes the tendency of people to save more during a recession which can lead to a further decrease in aggregate demand and a deeper economic downturn?
Answer: THRIFT (6 letters)
A savings institution focused on taking deposits and making home loans, distinct from a commercial bank.
5 What economic phenomenon occurs when the price of an asset rises far above its intrinsic value driven by exuberant market behavior rather than fundamental financial data?
Answer: BUBBLE (6 letters)
A period in which asset prices rise far above any plausible estimate of fundamental value, driven by expectations of further price rises rather than by income the asset produces.
Saturday, April 18, 2026
1 What specific financial term refers to the maximum amount of credit a bank or lender will extend to a customer, often adjusted based on the borrower's creditworthiness and payment history?
Answer: LIMIT (5 letters)
A credit limit: the maximum a lender will let a borrower owe at one time.
2 What specific economic term describes a situation where the inflation rate is negative, leading to a persistent decrease in the general price level of goods and services and increasing the real value of debt?
Answer: DEFLATION (9 letters)
A sustained fall in the general price level - inflation below zero. Money gains purchasing power over time.
3 Which American department store chain rejected a 6.6 billion dollar takeover bid from Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital in early 2024, citing concerns over the valuation and financing of the offer?
Answer: MACYS (5 letters)
4 What specific type of bond is issued by a national government and is denominated in the currency of that country, typically considered to have the lowest risk of default among all fixed income securities?
Answer: SOVEREIGN (9 letters)
Relating to a national government - most often its debt, or the risk that a state fails to meet its obligations.
5 Which global logistics firm announced a major restructuring plan in 2024 involving the elimination of 12000 jobs to save 1 billion dollars in costs following a post-pandemic slump in package volumes?
Answer: UPS (3 letters)
Sunday, April 19, 2026
1 What economic concept describes the total satisfaction or happiness received from consuming a good or service, which typically decreases for each additional unit consumed according to the law of diminishing returns?
Answer: UTILITY (7 letters)
In economics, the satisfaction a person gets from consuming something.
2 Which prominent hedge fund founder and billionaire was famously known as the man who broke the Bank of England after shorting the British pound during the 1992 Black Wednesday currency crisis?
Answer: SOROS (5 letters)
3 What specific corporate action involves a company creating a new, independent company by distributing new shares of its subsidiary to its existing shareholders, usually as a tax-free event?
Answer: SPINOFF (7 letters)
A company separating a division into an independent entity, typically by distributing shares in it to existing shareholders.
4 Which American food processing giant agreed in 2023 to pay a 435 million dollar settlement to resolve claims that it conspired with competitors to fix the prices of broiler chickens?
Answer: TYSON (5 letters)
5 Which massive South Korean conglomerate, responsible for nearly one fifth of the nation's total exports, saw its profits tumble in 2023 due to a global cyclical downturn in the memory chip market?
Answer: SAMSUNG (7 letters)