North American stocks are poised for a rebound Tuesday, with data ahead on U.S. manufacturing and home sales.

Tuesday will see the release of the ISM manufacturing poll for April, which probably was flat at around 51%. Figures on pending home sales for March also are due.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is due to deliver a speech at 11:00 ET on foreign trade.

In earnings news, Stelco reported a first-quarter net loss of $39 million on sales of $609 million, compared to a loss of $145 million on sales of $472 million for the same period in 2006.

Procter & Gamble eported a 14% increase in its third-quarter profit, in part as it extracted savings from its Gillette business.

Here at home, prices for petroleum and primary metal products caused prices for manufactured goods to surge in March, Statistics Canada reported today.

From February to March, prices charged by manufacturers, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index, registered a fifth consecutive monthly increase. The 1.3% rise in the index mainly reflected the strength of prices for petroleum and coal products and primary metal products.

Raw material prices were pushed up mainly by prices for non-ferrous metals. From February to March, the Raw Materials Price Index rose 1.3%, down from the 2.5% increase observed in February.

The Canadian dollar opened at US90.18¢, up 0.1 of a cent.

Oil prices rose Tuesday after gunmen in Nigeria kidnapped six foreign oil workers and killed a Nigerian sailor on a Chevron Corp. ship. Light, sweet crude for June delivery rose one cent to US$65.72 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midday in Europe.

Many international stock markets were closed for the May 1 holiday. Of the few that were open, the Nikkei 225 ended 0.7% lower in Tokyo, and the FTSE 100 dropped 0.5% in London.

Toronto stocks dropped Monday, as weakness in the price of oil and worries over the prospect of inflation and higher interest rates had investors selling off of strong recent gains.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 215.33, or 1.58%, to 13,416.68.

Statistics Canada reported that the GDP has grown by 0.4% in February, above the 0.2% that observers had expected. The Canadian dollar closed up 0.47 of a cent to US90.08¢, its highest level in eight months.

The S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell 32.87 points, or 1.00%, to 3,265.92.

In New York, markets moved lower as investors, faced with uncertain prospects concerning the growth of the U.S. economy, locked in gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 58.03 points, or 0.44%, to 13,062.91, the Nasdaq composite index dropped 32.12 points, or 1.26%, to 2,525.09, and the S&P 500 lost 11.70, or 0.78%, to 1,482.37.