1 This Santa Clara chipmaker touched a record intraday high near $238 on Oct. 2, pushing its market value past $5.7 trillion as investors kept piling into artificial-intelligence hardware. Name the company.
Answer: NVIDIA (6 letters)
◀ All past puzzles
Finance terms from the week of Monday, October 5, 2026
35 clues and answers from Monday, October 5, 2026 to Sunday, October 11, 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: clawback, depreciation, payrolls, annuity, backwardation, minutes, escrow, matching.
Monday, October 5, 2026
2 After a soft US jobs report, the 2-year Treasury yield fell 10 basis points late on Oct. 2 while the 10-year dropped six and the 30-year four, widening the gap between short and long maturities. What single word, often preceded by "bull", names that curve move?
Answer: STEEPENING (10 letters)
3 Shares of this Dublin-domiciled global consulting and technology services firm surged more than 16% after fiscal fourth-quarter earnings beat Wall Street estimates and management set out a strong revenue outlook for fiscal 2027. Name the company.
Answer: ACCENTURE (9 letters)
4 In executive pay, this is the contractual provision that lets a company recover bonuses or incentive compensation already handed over if results are later restated or misconduct comes to light. What single word names it?
Answer: CLAWBACK (8 letters)
A contractual right to reclaim money already paid - typically executive bonuses after a restatement, or fund distributions returned to investors.
5 October marks the anniversary of the 1987 crash, when a hedging technique that automatically sold stock-index futures as prices dropped turned a slide into a rout. Pension funds had been sold it as portfolio ___. What single word completes the name?
Answer: INSURANCE (9 letters)
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
1 On Oct. 1 the US securities regulator proposed rules under the 1940 Advisers and Investment Company Acts to modernise how registered advisers safeguard client assets, including letting them self-hold crypto in some cases. What single word names that safekeeping duty?
Answer: CUSTODY (7 letters)
2 Fiscal and budget worries pushed this euro-area country's 10-year risk premium over German Bunds to roughly 140 basis points this week, the widest of the bloc's large issuers. Name the country.
Answer: FRANCE (6 letters)
3 This German healthcare and hospital group announced on Oct. 1 that it had completed the purchase of the remaining 45% of biosimilars maker mAbxience, for up to 750 million euros including 50 million contingent on site approvals. Name the buyer.
Answer: FRESENIUS (9 letters)
4 In accounting, this is the systematic spreading of the cost of a tangible fixed asset (a machine, a building, a delivery van) across its useful life, charged against profit each period even though no cash leaves the business. What is the term?
Answer: DEPRECIATION (12 letters)
The accounting allocation of a tangible asset's cost across its useful life. Separately, a fall in a currency's value against others.
5 October brings the anniversary of the 1987 crash, when the Dow fell 22.6% in a single session on the 19th, still its worst one-day percentage drop. Its nickname pairs the word "Black" with the weekday it fell on. Which weekday?
Answer: MONDAY (6 letters)
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
1 The September US employment report showed just 29,000 jobs added, far below forecasts, and traders cut the odds of an October Fed hike to about 23%. What single word, usually preceded by "nonfarm", names that headline monthly count of jobs on employer records?
Answer: PAYROLLS (8 letters)
The count of jobs added or lost across an economy in a month, taken from employer surveys. In the US, non-farm payrolls.
2 The shared currency of the 20-nation single-currency bloc sank to a 17-month low this past week as investors fretted over rising inflation, weak growth, higher rates and growing fragmentation in member states' bond markets. Name that currency.
Answer: EURO (4 letters)
3 This French electrical-equipment and industrial-automation group agreed to buy US software maker PTC in an all-cash transaction valuing the target's equity at roughly $22.6 billion, the largest acquisition in the buyer's history. Name the acquirer.
Answer: SCHNEIDER (9 letters)
4 In finance, this is a stream of equal cash flows paid at regular intervals for a fixed number of periods, such as a level mortgage payment or a retirement income contract; it is the finite cousin of a payment stream that never ends. What is the term?
Answer: ANNUITY (7 letters)
A contract, usually with an insurer, that converts a lump sum into a stream of payments over time - often for the remainder of the holder's life.
5 In the weeks after a quarter's books close and before third-quarter results are published, companies that know they will miss their own forecasts rush out warnings. Wall Street nicknames this stretch of the October calendar the ___ season. What word fills the blank?
Answer: CONFESSION (10 letters)
Thursday, October 8, 2026
1 On Oct. 1 the Weston family moved closer to a roughly £7 billion deal to take over this UK high-street pharmacy and beauty chain, home of the No7 brand, buying it from its US private-equity owner. Name the chain.
Answer: BOOTS (5 letters)
2 On Oct. 1 the central bank of this Andean coffee-exporting nation, whose capital is Bogota, stunned economists with an unexpected 25 basis point rate increase, the fourth consecutive policy surprise of its current cycle. Name the country.
Answer: COLOMBIA (8 letters)
3 Shares of truck-brokerage RXO leapt more than 20% this week after this Minnesota-based freight broker and third-party logistics giant agreed to buy it for about $5.8 billion in cash and stock. Give the surname in the buyer's name.
Answer: ROBINSON (8 letters)
4 In futures markets, this is the condition in which contracts for later delivery trade below the current spot price, so a long position rolled forward each month earns a positive yield; it typically signals tight near-term supply.
Answer: BACKWARDATION (13 letters)
A futures market where contracts for later delivery trade below nearer ones, so the curve slopes downward - the opposite of contango.
5 October brings the anniversaries of the 1929, 1987 and 2008 routs, each of which featured a session of indiscriminate panic selling in which investors dumped holdings at any price, a washout traders often read as a possible bottom. What single word names that surrender?
Answer: CAPITULATION (12 letters)
Friday, October 9, 2026
1 A bipartisan congressional panel reported this week that this commission-free digital brokerage, popular with US retail traders, has deep ties to China's government. Its shares sank about 20% on Wednesday. Name the platform.
Answer: WEBULL (6 letters)
2 Three weeks after each policy meeting, the US central bank publishes a detailed account of the committee's debate. The release this week showed officials still expect another rate increase but gave no signal on timing. What single word names that document?
Answer: MINUTES (7 letters)
The detailed account of an FOMC meeting, published three weeks after the decision.
3 Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery formally closed on Oct. 6, merging the studios into a newly named entertainment company that takes its name from David Ellison's production house. What is the combined group called?
Answer: SKYDANCE (8 letters)
4 In monetary economics, this is the average number of times a unit of currency is spent on final goods and services in a year, computed as nominal output divided by the money stock; it falls when households and firms hoard cash. What is the term?
Answer: VELOCITY (8 letters)
5 Third-quarter reporting season opens this month, with PepsiCo, Delta and JPMorgan among the first out. What single word names the averaged forecast of Wall Street analysts for a company's quarterly profit, the bar a result is said to beat or miss?
Answer: CONSENSUS (9 letters)
Saturday, October 10, 2026
1 The US securities regulator's best-known crypto advocate, nicknamed "Crypto Mom", stepped down from the Commission effective Oct. 2 after serving as a Republican commissioner since 2018 and heading the agency's crypto task force. Give her surname.
Answer: PEIRCE (6 letters)
2 A 3.4% slump in a gauge of chip giants dragged the Nasdaq 100 down about 1.4% on Oct. 8, after fresh speculation about the revenue of which San Francisco lab behind ChatGPT revived worries about the durability of AI spending?
Answer: OPENAI (6 letters)
3 This Purchase, New York food and drinks group behind Gatorade, Doritos, Quaker Oats and Mountain Dew beat forecasts with third-quarter earnings of $2.34 a share on $25.25 billion of revenue, but trimmed its full-year outlook. Name the company.
Answer: PEPSICO (7 letters)
4 In dealmaking, this is cash or securities held by a neutral third party under an agreement and released only when set conditions are met; buyers routinely park part of the purchase price there to cover later indemnity claims.
Answer: ESCROW (6 letters)
Money or documents held by a neutral third party until the conditions of a deal are met, at which point the holder releases them to the right party.
5 October brings the anniversary of the 1987 crash, after which US exchanges adopted market-wide pauses that stop all trading when the S&P 500 falls 7%, 13% or 20% in a session. What single word, paired with "breaker", names them?
Answer: CIRCUIT (7 letters)
Sunday, October 11, 2026
1 This Asian country's central bank published a formal policy document this week rejecting claims that its currency is undervalued, arguing that exchange-rate adjustments will not resolve structural trade imbalances, as talks with the European Union proceeded. Name the country.
Answer: CHINA (5 letters)
2 Helped by Fed minutes showing officials still expect another rate rise, the main US currency was set this week for its longest run of consecutive weekly gains since early 2025. What single word names that currency, the world's chief reserve money?
Answer: DOLLAR (6 letters)
3 This Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based generics and biosimilars drugmaker, created from the combination of Mylan and Upjohn, agreed on Oct. 8 to buy pain-therapy specialist Pacira BioSciences for $36.50 a share in cash, about $1.65 billion. Name the buyer.
Answer: VIATRIS (7 letters)
4 In accounting, this principle requires costs to be recorded in the same period as the revenues they help generate, rather than when cash changes hands, which is why a machine's cost is spread across the years it produces sales. What is the principle called?
Answer: MATCHING (8 letters)
The matching principle: expenses are recorded in the same period as the revenue they helped produce, rather than when cash moves.
5 October brings the anniversary of the 1987 crash, when computers fired off simultaneous orders across large baskets of shares, accelerating the slide and prompting new exchange safeguards. What single word completes the name of that technique, ___ trading?
Answer: PROGRAM (7 letters)