With the exception of a an announcement on interest rates, it’s a fairly quiet week for economic news.
The Bank of Canada makes its interest rate announcement on Tuesday. Economists expect the bank to leave its key overnight lending rate unchanged at 4.25%.
Also Tuesday, Statistics Canada releases reports on the leading indicator for March. Economists expect an increase of 0.4% over February.
On Friday, StatsCan releases its business conditions survey, with the focus on manufacturing, for April.
South of the border
On Tuesday, the U.S. Commerce Department reports on existing home sales for March. Economists expect annualized sales of 6.42 million homes.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference Board releases its consumer confidence survey for April.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Commerce Department reports on new home sales for March. Economists expect annualized sales of 890,000 homes.
Separately, Commerce reports on durable goods orders in March. Economists forecast a gain of 2.5%.
On Friday, the U.S. Commerce Department reports on the gross domestic product in the first quarter. Economists expect an annualized gain of 1.8%.
Corporate earnings
The deluge of corporate earnings reports continues unabated this week. Among the companies scheduled to report are:
- Canadian National Railway Co.;
- Fording Canadian Coal Trust;
- Teck-Cominco Ltd.;
- West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd.;
- Alcan Inc.;
- Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.;
- Catalyst Paper Corp.;
- Ipsco Inc.;
- Petro-Canada;
- TransAlta Corp.;
- EnCana Corp.;
- Canadian Oil Sands Trust;
- Canam Group Inc;
- Methanex Corp.;
- Norbord Inc.;
- Nova Chemicals Corp.;
- Precision Drilling Corp.;
- Toromont Industries Ltd.;
- TSX Group Inc.;
- Nexen Inc.;
- Suncor Energy Inc.;
- Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc.;
- Thomson Corp.;
- Western Oil Sands Inc.;
- Sierra Wireless Inc.;
- Maple Leaf Foods Inc.;
- Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd.;
- QLT Inc.;
- Sears Canada Ltd.;
- Brookfield Properties Corp.;
- TransCanada Corp.;
- Cameco Corp.; and
- Emergis Inc.