Andrew Bell

Anchor, Reporter

Follow|Archive

Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic - Dan Rather

On this day in 1914, the world’s first electric traffic light began halting cars at Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. The rest is history. One study found in 2011 that “drivers traveling the 10-worst U.S. traffic corridors annually spend an average of 140 hours, or about the time spent in the office in a month, idling in traffic.”  

Looks like more folks are going to be climbing on the commuter treadmill. Our Top Line on BNN this morning is Canada's unexpected loss of 31,000 jobs last month -- and the apparent rush by American employers to hire workers. The  U.S. economy added 255,000 jobs in July. 

We’re also tracking the slightly shorter queue for the new Bombardier CSeries aircraft after the company said – tucked away in its second quarter earnings release - that Moscow-based Ilyushin Finance is cutting its firm orders by a dozen planes “to align with their current market needs.”

The company also swung to a loss. At 9:45 a.m. ET, we’ll be joined by Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn. He rates the stock Outperform but warned last year that the Canadian industrial flagbearer faces a fight as it attacks markets dominated by Boeing and Airbus: “If you poke a bear you had better show up with the right sort of stick.”

And at 2:10 p.m. ET, we'll get perspective from Rolland Vincent, president of aviation consulting firm Rolland Vincent Associates, who told us last month that the company’s new managers are “doing all the right things” in the campaign to sell the new plane.  “A lot of people are looking at it and thinking ‘Hmm, this is quite an interesting aircraft.’”

As the world gets ready for the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro at 7 p.m. ET, BNN is set to cover the business angles. (And no, the Globe and Mail’s Niall McGee and I still haven’t decided which events we’ll actually compete in. Sorry for procrastinating.)

At 10:40 a.m. ET, we’ll be joined by Ronen Benin, whose RightBlue Labs has come up with an app aimed at checking and measuring athletes' brutal training regimes to help them stay healthy. http://www.rightbluelabs.com/

And those Olympics queues can get sweaty. A 12:40 p.m. ET, we'll meet Dan Demsky, co-founder of Unbound Apparel. The Toronto-based startup sells merino wool clothing that’s reportedly able to go for two weeks without a wash.

Oh, yeah, speaking of heat. Seems that like parked cars, the bouncy castles that proliferate at summer fairs can reach interior temperatures that pose a hazard to kids.

That’s all well and good. But your horrid progeny had better just get out of the way when Niall McGee and I climb in and start jumping. We’re international athletes after all.

Every morning Commodities host Andrew Bell writes a ‘chase note’ to BNN's editorial staff listing the stories and events that will be in the spotlight that day. Have it delivered to your inbox before the trading day begins by heading to www.bnn.ca/subscribe.