With market players getting back into the swing of things, the week ahead will deliver a solid strong of economic data releases.

In Canada, December housing starts are due out on Tuesday, preceded by building permits on Monday. Wednesday brings the international trade balance, followed by auto ales on Friday.

For the housing report, RBC Capital Markets says, “A higher-than-expected gain of 238,200 housing starts in November suggests that most forecasts anticipating a slowdown of the housing market may be a little premature. Relatively low interest rates and rising household income suggest that some of the strength in the housing market last year will carry over into this year.”

BMO Nesbitt Burns expects a modest 1% gain in building permit data, following the 2% rebound in October.

Turning to international trade, CIBC World Markets suggests that trade data should, “be as important as any other economic temperature gauge, given that exports have been responsible for the major swings in GDP performance in the past couple of years, and are at the epicenter for Canadian dollar impacts.”

CIBC WM says it is expecting a slight further weakening in the surplus, against consensus expectations for a small rebound. But, it says market watchers should pay more attention to the absolute swing in exports. “Imports had surged in an inventory build-up in Canada in Q3, so an improvement in the trade balance coming from tamer inbound shipments wouldn’t mean much.”

“Canadian exports have dropped four months in a row, and appear poised to extend the streak to five in November,” adds Nesbitt. It is looking for exports to sag about 2% in the month. However, it believes that imports are also likely to drop, which should lift the trade surplus slightly to $4.6 billion from $4.4 billion in October. “This will still be $1 billion below the average surplus in the first ten months of 2004, and will do no favours for the suddenly sagging loonie,” it adds.

In the United States, international trade data is also due Wednesday, followed by retail sales on Thursday. Reports on producer price inflation, industrial production and business inventories on Friday. CIBC WM predicts that retail sales will be brisk on the headline, “but much less so once a hot month for auto sales is stripped out …”

Nesbitt says that, “In the wake of this week’s FOMC minutes, which emphasized increased inflation concerns, next week’s price reports will be watched closely. We look for the headline producer price index to be unchanged in December, as decreases in energy prices offset increases elsewhere.”

Nesbitt also says that lower oil prices will also help reduce the trade deficit for November. “We judge it will narrow to US$53.2 billion from October’s record of US$55.5 billion, which, in turn, could prove to be the deficit’s apex.”

“Any improvement in the U.S. trade balance will be too modest to remove what is still a huge lead weight on the dollar in the current account, and indeed, the mere reporting of the trade data could be enough to have markets take a step back from recent bullishness on the greenback,” CIBC notes.

Nesbitt adds that manufacturing output should post a moderate 0.3% rise on the back of productivity growth. This should permit industrial production to increase a similar amount and push the capacity utilization rate up a notch to 78.8% from 78.7% in November, it predicts.

As for earnings news, Scotia Capital notes that Shaw Communications Inc. reports on Wednesday, followed by Corus Entertainment Inc. on Thursday.

Cogeco Cable Inc., Cogeco Inc., CHUM and CI Fund Management Inc. are slated to report on Friday.