It’s a light week for domestic data following the Canada Day holiday. In the United States, markets are closed Tuesday for the Independence Day holiday.

Here at home, the Conference Board of Canada releases its latest economic forecast, “U.S. Outlook – Summer 2006”, on Tuesday.

On Thursday, Statistics Canada releases May building permits figures.

On Friday, StatsCan releases the June unemployment report.

South of the border

The U.S. Commerce Department reports on factory orders for May, on Wednesday.

On Thursday, major U.S. retailers announce their sales figures for June.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Labor Department reports on weekly jobless claims.

Overseas, both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank announces interest rate decisions.

On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department issues its employment report for June.

Corporate earnings

In earnings news this week, reports are due from: CanWest MediaWorks Income Fund; Richelieu Hardware Ltd.; CanWest Global Communications Corp.; and Laidlaw International Inc.