Stocks poised to continue rally

Click the chart for more premarket data. By CNNMoney staffApril 25, 2011: 6:20 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks are poised to head higher, as investors return from the holiday weekend and await the latest data on the housing market.

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU), S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq (COMP) futures were roughly 0.2% higher ahead of the opening bell. Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

The market was closed Friday in observance of Good Friday. The last week in April brings a bigger batch of corporate earnings, and the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s inaugural press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Economy: Monday brings the latest data on new home sales, released by the Census Bureau at 10 a.m. ET.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect new home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 280,000 units in March, up from 250,000 units in February.

Companies: Netflix (NFLX) will announce first-quarter results after the closing bell. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the online movie rental company’s profit to surge almost 80%, as sales climb 43% from a year earlier.

World markets: The Hang Seng in Hong Kong, Britain’s FTSE 100, the DAX in Germany and France’s CAC 40 were all closed for Easter Monday.

Asian markets ended the session lower. The Shanghai Composite fell 1.5% and Japan’s Nikkei slipped 0.1%.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro and the the British pound, but rose against the Japanese yen.

Oil for June delivery gained 41 cents to $112.70 a barrel.

Gold futures for June delivery rose $14 to $1,517.80 an ounce, after breaking a new intra-day trading high of $1,518.60 earlier Monday morning.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury rose, pushing the yield down to 3.39% from 3.4% late Thursday. The bond market closed early on Thursday and remained closed in observance of Good Friday.