On Monday, Statistics Canada reports on international securities transactions in February. Economists forecast a net inflow of $1 billion.

On Tuesday, the Bank of Canada announces its interest rate decision. Economists expect the benchmark rate to remain unchanged at 0.5%.

As well, StatsCan reports on wholesale sales in February. An increase of 1.2% from a month earlier is forecast.

On Wednesday, StatsCan reports on leading indicators for March. A drop of 0.8% from a month earlier is forecast

On Thursday, the Bank of Canada releases its monetary policy report.

StatsCan reports on retail sales in February. A drop of 0.4% from the previous month is forecast.

South of the border

On Monday, the U.S. Conference Board reports on leading indicators in March. A drop of 0.2% is forecast.

On Wednesday, The U.S. Commerce Department releases the housing price index for February. A drop of 0.6% from the previous month is forecast.

On Thursday, the U.S. National Association of Realtors reports on existing home sales in March. A decline of 0.4% from the previous month to an annualized figure of 4.7 million is forecast.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Labour reports on initial jobless claims for the week ended April 18. Economists forecast 633,000 claims

On Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department reports on new home sales in March. Economists expect a drop of 0.9% from the previous month, to an annualized figure of 340,000 homes.

Separately, Commerce reports on durable goods orders for March. A drop of 1.5% is forecast.

Corporate earnings

On Monday, Canadian National Railway Co. reports its first-quarter results, as does Bank of America Corp., International Business Machines Corp., and Texas Instruments Inc.

On Tuesday, U.S. Bancorp reports first-quarter results as does Coca-Cola Co., E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Merck & Co., New York Times Co., and Yahoo Inc.

On Wednesday, EnCana Corp. reports its first-quarter result, as does Apple Inc., AT&T Inc., Boeing Co., eBay Inc., McDonald’s Corp., Precision Drilling Trust, and Wells Fargo & Co.

On Thursday, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. reports its first-quarter results, as does Celestica Inc., Metro Inc., Suncor Energy Inc., Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., Amazon.com, ConocoPhillips Co., Microsoft Corp., PepsiCo Inc., and Philip Morris International Inc.

On Friday, 3M Co. reports first-quarter results as does Xerox Corp.

IE