The chances of a third cash rate cut for the year at Tuesday's RBA board meeting are close to zero.

However, traders and investors will be scouring governor Glenn Stevens' accompanying statement for insights into the bank's thinking on jobs, inflation, the Australian dollar and the economy's much watched transition from resources-led to services-led growth.

Any intensification of the mild easing bias present in RBA language could drive some selling of the Australian dollar. However, this seems unlikely.

Conversely, a shift towards a more neutral bias might be viewed as slightly negative for shares. However, the benign inflation outlook means the RBA is unlikely to begin lifting interest rates for at least a year.

In any case, shares will take their cues from Wall Street and European trade, while commodity prices and local corporate news also will be drivers.

The S&P/ASX 200 SPI futures contract is priced for equities to open virtually flat on Monday. Both US and European investors shrugged off a sharp decline in Chinese equities on Friday.

In Australia, last week's surprisingly weak third-quarter capital expenditure data suggests economic rebalancing has been sluggish, even if the jobs market continues to improve.

Tame inflation and a cooling residential housing market meant the RBA would be free to further ease monetary policy if necessary, although it seemed reluctant at this stage.

"The RBA board meeting on Tuesday, the last for the year, is expected to be a non-event with markets only pricing a 4 per cent chance of a rate cut," National Australia Bank economist Tapas Strickland wrote at the weekend.

"Nevertheless, attention will be paid to the statement, particularly its references to October's extraordinary jobs growth of 58,600, which caused the unemployment rate to fall to 5.9 per cent.

"This was substantially below the RBA's forecasts contained in the November statement on monetary policy and resulted in an aggressive repricing of expectations for the cash rate to be on hold for a prolonged period of time," he said.

Wednesday's third-quarter national accounts also have market-moving potential, especially given last week's capital expenditure surprise.

Economists expect quarterly growth of about 0.7 per cent, leaving year-on-year expansion at 2.3 per cent. These compare with just 0.2 per cent and 2 per cent, respectively, at the end of the June quarter.

Net exports, which will be published on Tuesday, are expected to compensate for subdued business investment and public demand, along with company operating profits and inventories, released on Monday.

"Public demand, representing just over 20 per cent of the economy, stalled in 2014," Westpac chief economist Bill Evans wrote at the weekend.

"A focus on budget repair and a lack of urgency around public infrastructure are key constraints.

"It came as a surprise, then, that the national accounts reported a 2.7 per cent jump in public demand in the second quarter," he said.

"For the third quarter, we expect a return to soft public demand, forecasting a decline of 0.3 per cent."

Internationally, all eyes are on the European Central Bank, which is expected to announce further monetary stimulus at its board meeting on Friday.

Most pundits expect a further cut to the deposit rate for banks, although whether or not the central bank expands its asset buying, or quantitative easing, program remains open to debate.

By contrast, the US Federal Reserve looks on track to increase interest rates for the first time in almost a decade in just over two weeks, making this week's US jobs data, which is released on Saturday, of interest only in the case of last minute surprises.

This seemed unlikely, and most asset classes had factored in the US Fed's December "lift-off", including sharemarkets, AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said.

"While the run-up to the Fed's interest rate-setting meeting in mid-December could see more volatility in sharemarkets, it's starting to look like investors are becoming less worried about it and that a Fed hike will actually be a vote of confidence in the US economy," he said.