(CEP News) - It might take more than just positive earnings to help push North American equity markets higher next week, according to some market strategists.

The coming week will be busy in Canada, with the Bank of Canada’s monetary policy meeting, March retail sales and the BOC monetary policy report. It will be quiet in the U.S. in terms of data, however, so the focus will remain on first-quarter corporate earnings.

North American markets have already received some positive earnings results, but the better-than-expected data have not provided any new momentum for the stock market rally.

“I think markets are well into overbought territory and we could see a pull back to the 780 level next week,” Jimmy Tintle, a futures broker at Transworld futures.com, said.

Colin Cieszynski, a market analyst at CMC Markets, agreed that the recent bull rally is losing steam.

“Right now we are beating very low expectations. I think equities can only go so high on the sentiment ‘things aren’t so bad.’ I think we are going to need to see data that shows the economy is on the rise,” he said.

In U.S. data, a highlight of the week will be weekly jobless claims. Boris Schlossberg, director of currency research at GFT, said the weekly claims generally provide the most up-to-date picture of the U.S. economy.

Looking at Canadian data, George Davis, chief technical analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said the most important data will be the BOC monetary policy report. He is expecting the report to highlight the possibility of quantitative easing.

There are concerns that quantitative easing could hurt the loonie. However, Davis said the report might not be negative for the Canadian dollar.

“I think if USD/CAD traded up to 1.2250 [CAD] following the report it would once again attract U.S. dollar sellers,” he said.

Ahead of the monetary policy report, the Bank of Canada will hold its monetary policy meeting. According to Overnight Index Swaps, markets are pricing in a 60% chance of a 25 basis point cut. Economists are evenly split between holding rates unchanged and a 25 basis point cut.

Davis said he is expecting the bank to hold rates steady because of the recent stabilization in financial markets and some growing optimism about the global economy.

“The data shows that the rate of deterioration is slowing,” he said.

All times in EDT.

Saturday:

9:45 US Ex-Fed Chairman Volcker Speaks in Nashville on Economy

10:30 US Fed’s Kohn Speaks in Nashville on Monetary Policy

11:45 US Fed’s Dudley Speaks in Nashville on Liquidity Programs

13:45 US Fed’s Stern Speaks in Nashville on U.S. Economic Outlook

16:15 US Fed’s Lockhart Chairs Nashville Panel on Banking, Real Estate

Monday:

8:30 CA International Securities Transactions February Exp: 0.750B Prior: +10.428B

9:00 US Fed’s Evans Speaks at Money Smart Week Events in Chicago

10:00 US Leading Indicators March Exp: -0.2% Prior: -0.4%

13:00 US Treasury to Sell $28B 3-Month Bills

13:00 US Treasury to Sell $27B 6-Month Bills

19:30 US Fed’s Kohn Speaks in Newark, Delaware, on Economic Outlook

Tuesday:

8:30 CA Wholesale Sales (M/M) February Exp: +1.5% Prior: -4.2%

9:00 CA Bank of Canada Rate Exp: 0.50% Prior: 0.50%

10:00 US Fed’s Hoenig Testifies Before Joint Economic Committee

13:00 US Treasury to Sell 4-Week Bills

17:00 US ABC Consumer Confidence W/E April 19 Prior: -51

Wednesday:

7:00 US MBA Mortgage Applications Prior: -11.0%

8:30 CA Leading Indicators (M/M) March Exp: -0.8% Prior: -1.1%

10:00 US House Price Index (M/M) February Exp: -0.7% Prior: +1.7%

10:30 US DOE U.S. Crude Oil Inventories W/E April 17 Prior: +5671K

10:30 US DOE U.S. Gasoline Inventories W/E April 17 Prior: -944K

10:30 US DOE U.S. Distillate Inventory W/E April 17 Prior: -1170K

10:30 US DOE U.S. Heat Oil Inventories W/E April 17

10:30 US DOE U.S. Refinery Utilization W/E April 17 Prior: -1.47%

Thursday:

8:30 CA Retail Sales (M/M) February Exp: -0.3% Prior: +1.9%

8:30 CA Retail Sales Less Autos (M/M) February Exp: +0.2% Prior: +1.3%

8:30 US Initial Jobless Claims W/E April 18 Exp: 638K Prior: +610K

8:30 US Continuing Claims W/E April 11 Exp: 6120K Prior: +6022K

10:00 US Existing Home Sales March Exp: +4.65M Prior: +4.72M

10:00 US Existing Home Sales (M/M) March Exp: -1.5% Prior: +5.1%

10:30 CA Bank of Canada Monetary Policy Report

10:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage Change W/E April 17 Prior: +21

13:00 US Treasury to Sell 5-Year TIPS

Friday:

8:30 US Durable Goods Orders March Exp: -1.5% Prior: +3.4%

8:30 US Durables Ex Transportation March Exp: -1.2% Prior: +3.9%

10:00 US New Home Sales March Exp: +340K Prior: +337K

10:00 US New Home Sales (M/M) March Exp: +0.9% Prior: +4.7%

April 24 US Treasury’s Geithner to Host G-7 Finance Ministers

First-quarter corporate earnings from April 20 to April 24:

Monday:

Bank of America Corporation (BAC) 0.05

Canadian National Railway (CNI) 0.49

Eli Lilly (LLY) 0.99

Halliburton Company (HAL) 0.41

Hasbro, Inc. (HAS) 0.14

International Business Machines (IBM) 1.66

Texas Instruments (TXN) -0.03

Tuesday:

AK Steel Holding Corp (AKS) -0.75

Bank of New York Mellon Corp (BK) 0.63

Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) 0

Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) 0.06

Coach, Inc. (COH) 0.36

Delta Air Lines, Inc (DAL) -1.01

DuPont (DD) 0.52

Lockheed Martin (LMT) 1.64

The Coca-Cola Company (KO) 0.65

U.S. Bancorp (USB) 0.2

Yahoo, Inc. (YHOO) 0.08

Wednesday:

Apple Inc. (AAPL) 1.09

AT&T (T) 0.48

Continental Airlines (CAL) -1.19

eBay (EBAY) 0.34

McDonald’s Corporation (MCD) 0.82

Morgan Stanley (MS) N/A

QUALCOMM Inc. (QCOM) 0.41

The Boeing Company (BA) 0.91

Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) 0.41

Thursday:

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) 0.31

American Express Company (AXP) 0.14

Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) 0.37

Chubb Corporation (CB) 1.38

Credit Suisse Group (CS) N/A

Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc. POT 0.86

Suncor Energy (SU) 0.12

SunPower Corporation SPWRA 0.25

Union Pacific (UNP) 0.66

United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) 0.57

US Airways (LCC) -2.38

Friday:

3M Company (MMM) 0.86

Honeywell (HON) 0.54

By Neils Christensen, neilsc@economicnews.ca, edited by Sarah Sussman, ssussman@economicnews.ca

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