It’s a quiet week for Canadian economic news, but the heavy flow of earnings reports will more than make up for it.

On Tuesday, Statistics Canada reports on retail sales for October. Economists expect an increase of 0.5%.

On Friday, Statistics Canada releases its business conditions survey for October.

South of the border

On Wednesday, the U.S. National Association of Realtors reports on existing home sales in September. Sales are expected to decline 4.5% to an annualized 5.25 million.

On Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department reports on initial jobless claims for the week ended Oct. 20. Economists forecast 320,000 claims compared with 337,000 in the previous week.

The U.S. Commerce Department reports on new-home sales for September. Economists forecast a drop of 2.5% to 775,000 annualized sales.

Corporate earnings

Monday will see the earnings reports from Canadian National Railway Co., Canfor Pulp Income Fund, Apple Inc., Kimberly-Clark Corp., and Texas Instruments Inc.

Tuesday brings reports from Transalta Corp., Amazon.com Inc., TD Ameritrade Holding Corp., and New York Times Co.

On Wednesday, Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. reports, as does Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc., ConocoPhillips Co., Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., Boeing Co., and Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.

Thursday brings reports from Maple Leaf Foods Inc., Suncor Energy Inc., Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., Precision Drilling Trust, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Corus Entertainment Inc., Daimler AG, Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp., Dow Chemical Co., and US Airways Group Inc.

On Friday, Tim Hortons Inc. reports, as does Cogeco Inc. and Rothmans Inc.