This week’s meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board will likely be the biggest news in what should otherwise be a quiet week.

RBC Financial says that the most important economic releases in Canada this week will include housing starts on Monday, capacity utilization on Wednesday, car sales on Thursday and labour productivity and the leading indicator on Friday.

CIBC World Markets says, “Building permits data already showed the housing sector is still hot in Q4, and we expect November starts to retain most of their October vigour. Q3 capacity use should climb further, a reminder of the sharply contrasting status of the factory sector on the two sides of the Canada-US border.”

BMO Nesbitt Burns says that productivity likely slowed to a 0.4% advance last quarter (1.6% annual rate), a fraction of the 5.1% rise in U.S. output per hour in Q3. It also predicts that housing starts are projected to edge down only slightly to a 210,000 annual rate from the 12-year high of 220,100 in October.

In the U.S., Tuesday’s Fed meeting should be the big event. This will be followed by retail sales numbers and the third quarter current account data on Thursday. Business inventories and the Producer Price Index are due on Friday.

RBC says that it is widely expected that the Fed will keep rates firmly on hold. TD Bank says, “While last week’s disappointing economic reports will inevitably lead to increased market chatter of a possible further interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve at this coming Tuesday’s FOMC meeting, we expect that the U.S. central bank will opt to remain on the sidelines.”

BMO says that Friday’s payroll numbers created doubt about the strength of the U.S. recovery. Nevertheless, “We expect the Fed to stay on hold and to issue a statement with a neutral bias.”

Turning to the economic data, CIBC predicts that the headline retail sales figure will get a boost from a modest autos rebound, “but non-auto sales look to be soft, even when adjusted for the late Thanksgiving holiday.” And, it says, “Keep an eye as well on jobless claims numbers, to see if the past week’s huge improvement is sustained or was merely statistical noise.”

“A little data will roll in but, no surprise, markets won’t be critically interested in November retail sales at a time when everyone is focused on the holiday shopping results,” offers BMO. “We do look for pipeline prices to stabilize a bit in the PPI report. The upswing in those prices of late represented a yellow warning light that a whiff of inflation was developing and any relief would be good news.”

The only earnings reports out this week will be Sobeys Inc. reporting on Tuesday, Empire Company confessing on Wednesday, and ADF Group Inc. due on Thursday.