This week traders will see economic news from Canada front-loaded at the beginning of the week, while U.S. news will appear toward the end.

In Canada, the week starts out strong with the release of July retail sales on Monday, followed by August consumer prices on Tuesday.

The flow of news will slow toward the end of the week, with the August leading indicator and the earnings growth report for July due out Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

CIBC World Markets says that this week’s numbers should provide further evidence on July’s economic bounce-back. “Joining earlier-reported gains for manufacturing, that month should see a quite strong reading for retailing. CPI takes a hit from energy prices in August, but the key core measure is running well below the Bank of Canada’s 2% target midpoint,” it says, noting that markets will also be keeping an eye on the dollar. “If it extends last week’s gains, it should be raising talk about the future need for offsetting interest rate cuts.”

Retail sales are expected to bounce higher after a listless spring, BMO Nesbitt Burns says. “In fact, the risks are probably to the upside on our above-consensus call of a 1.2% headline gain in sales.” It notes that auto sales are strong, and housing sales strength should boost furniture sales.

TD Bank says that the inflation report is sure to be the highlight this week. “There seems little doubt that inflation is set to remain very well contained here, too,” it says. “In the first place, the Canadian economy is also exhibiting some slack, courtesy of a series of shocks that caused real GDP growth to contract in the second quarter and have kept growth subdued in the third quarter. And, with prior increases in energy prices and insurance costs set to fall out of the calculation in the next few months, headline and core inflation could dip to roughly 1% early next year, before edging back up toward the 2% midpoint of the Bank of Canada’s target band by year-end. As a result, the Bank of Canada should be able to stay on the sidelines for a considerable period of time, likely not beginning to raise interest rates until the second half of next year.”

Nesbitt reminds investors that this week’s CPI report for August is the last one the Bank of Canada will see prior to its next decision on interest rates in mid-October. It says that core inflation is poised to drop sharply again in August, with the possibility of an even sharper fall-off. And, headline inflation should slip too. “Bank officials have already openly noted that core inflation is poised to move lower in the months ahead, and the market is fully expecting a much lower reading for August. The bigger issue is whether the deceleration in CPIX will continue — we believe next week’s result will be close to the low-water mark for core inflation.”

In the U.S., the week starts slowly, but RBC points out that it closes off strong with an important look at August durable goods orders and home sales on Thursday, followed by final numbers for both second quarter GDP and the University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey on Friday.

CIBC characterizes this week as a quiet one though, and says the markets could pay as much attention to Thursday’s weekly jobless claims report as to any of the monthly series. It expects to see a pick-up in durables orders. It also says that Monday will see foreign exchange markets trading off the results of the weekend’s G-7 meeting, “which is expected to see at least some statement regarding currencies.”

The light week will likely be treated as no news is good news, Nesbitt says. “One thing worth noting is that we expect a counter-intuitive 1.3% drop in August headline durable goods orders, following a 3.5% rise the prior two months,” it says. “The knee-jerk market reaction may be that the recovery is losing steam. But, our forecast would actually represent a month of consolidation in a rising trend.”

Nesbitt will also be watching jobless claims numbers. It says that, “The drop below 400,000 in the employment survey week caught some attention and a sustained reduction in this week’s figures might be taken quite seriously as a sign that the expansion is becoming self-reinforcing.”