LAST week, US stocks rebounded somewhat as fears about jobs data, earnings and the oil bust subsided.

For the rebound to continue, the market needs positive outlooks from banks, tech companies and housing-market data this week.

After April 3's shockingly weak March jobs report, index futures plunged over that weekend and stocks opened lower last Monday. Major indices soon regained lost ground, however, as more experienced hands on Wall Street trading desks questioned the reliability of the data. Given that other surveys, including the unemployment rate survey quoted in the same report, painted a picture of an improving jobs market, traders bet that the March tally - which showed roughly half the rate of jobs growth forecast by economists - was an aberration rather than a change in the trend.