Straight talking on BNN

Occupy Toronto protestors last night descended up Simcoe Park, a small green space across from the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. "For 24 hours, we will transform the financial district," one of the protest leaders said through a megaphone. "We will occupy the heart of the beast." A press release sent out Tuesday evening by the Occupy movement said they plan to transform the park into a space for education, conversation, and protest. They will set up info booths, political film screenings (I hope they show The Manchurian Candidate. I LOVE that movie! Three Days of the Condor would be awesome, too.), a free school, a kitchen and sleeping areas. Unfortunately for many protestors, who, bleary-eyed, complained that police prevented them from getting a good night's sleep, the "beast" actually resides several blocks to the east, and a quick hop north.

• BNN's focus today will be in getting straight answers from straight talkers at some of Canada's most influential and dynamic companies. We'll also throw in a few chats with key policy-setters and a legendary hedge fund manager or two. Myron Scholes, Canadian-born economics whiz who won the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1997, came up with the Black-Scholes equation for valuing derivatives and stuff and co-founded Long-Term Capital Management, kicked off our coverage of the Milken 2012 Global Conference this morning at 7:45 a.m. ET.

• Bo Lundgren, who oversaw Sweden's bold and successful response to the financial crisis and pummeled Rocky Balboa in their first match, joins Howard Green just after 10:00 a.m. ET to discuss Europe's "muddling through" of its ongoing crisis, monetary policy and how to make austerity work.Pierre Beaudoin, President and CEO of Bombardier, is in California at the conference as well and sits down with us at 1:00 p.m. T. Boone Pickens, founder of BP Capital Management, weighs in on natural gas and U.S. energy policy at 1:15.

• Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan reported earning last week that sent the stock lower. CEO Bill Doyle will tell us what farmers' planting intentions for 2012 will mean for the bottom line at the world's biggest potash producer. "Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon." Gregg Saretsky, CEO of WestJet, will fill us in at 3:10 p.m. on his plans for a new regional airline and his purchase of 20 new Bombardier planes yesterday. Peter Marrone, CEO of Yamana Gold, joins us at 4:30 p.m. to talk about, oh, I don't know, all that glitters?

• Barrick, the world's biggest gold company, reported a short time ago, saying first-quarter adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.09, short of the $1.11 average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The company reiterated its production forecast for the full year but said second-quarter production would be lower than the first quarter. Barrick was kind enough to raise its dividend 33 percent to 20 cents a share.

• Loblaw Cos. looks to be an important story for us today. The company missed expectations, again, and said full-year profit will decline and the first-half of the year promises to be fraught with "more pressure."

• Other earnings we're watching include Devon Energy, Maple Leaf Foods, First Quantum, Time Warner, Beazer Homes, Green Mountain Coffee, Whole Foods, Visa, MasterCard and Comcast.

• Along with its earnings this morning, Intact Financial says it has agreed to buy Westaim's Jevco insurance unit for $530-million. That's more than half a billion dollars, FYI.

• CP has written another letter to shareholders, exhorting them to vote for its slate of directors, not Pershing Square's. CP has now written more letters than all the characters in Dickens' novels. Dear Mr. Micawber…

Every morning Managing Editor Marty Cej writes a "chase note" to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Click here to have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins.