The consensus is for housing starts to fall slightly in the month, coming in at 225,000 units following March's revised starts of 243,000 units.

Rishi Sondhi, an economist from RBC Capital Markets, said most of the declines will be from a drop in a multi-unit component of the data. He added that although the data has surprised on the upside in the last three months, they are expecting the Canadian housing industry to slow in 2008.

"It's likely that housing starts will trend lower in 2008 owing to a deterioration in affordability conditions in Canada, though they will still end the year averaging above 200K units (a very solid level)," he wrote in a note to clients.

In the U.S., markets will receive March wholesale inventories, which are expected to rise 0.5% following a 1.1% rise in February.

Economists expect weekly U.S. jobless claims to fall back slightly, rising to 375,000 claims, down from last week's reading of 380,000.

All times in EDT:

Thursday

8:15 CA Housing Starts April Exp: 225.0K Prior: 254.7K Revised: 243.0K

8:30 US Initial Jobless Claims 3-May Exp: +370K Prior: 380K

8:30 US Continuing Claims 26-Apr Exp: 3020K Prior: 3019K

10:00 US Wholesale Inventories March Exp: +0.5% Prior: +1.1%

10:15 CA Fin Min Jim Flaherty to speak to Media in Washington, D.C.

10:30 US EIA Natural Gas Storage Change 2-May Exp: 62 Prior: 86

10:30 US TSY's Paulson to speak on economic stimulus at an even in Kansas City

12:30 US Former Fed Chairman Greenspan Speaks in New York

13:00 US Treasury to Sell $6B 30-Year Bonds; Reopening

13:15 US Deputy Treasury Secretary Kimmitt Speaks on State Wealth Funds

13:30 US ICSC Chain Store Sales (Annualized) April Prior: -0.5

16:30 US M1 and M2 Money Supply

By Neils Christensen, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , edited by Cristina Markham, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it