12:15 PM EDT, 06/20/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The TSX is up 76 points at midday on mixed sectors. Miners and industrials are the biggest gainers, up 1.9% and 0.6%, respectively.

Oil prices edged higher early on Thursday on expectations summer demand is on the rise amid tight supply while fresh inventory data is awaited.

Gold traded higher even as the dollar and yields rose despite weak U.S. economic data.

But natural gas traded lower as the first named tropical storm of the season brought lower temperatures to Texas, cutting into cooling demand, even as dangerously hot weather continues in the Northeast.

BMO's Robert Kavcic in an overnight note, said Canadian stocks, "always a valuation darling but rarely an outperformer, have returned to their lagging ways". Since the end of April, he noted, the TSX has struggled to stay positive, while the S&P 500 has pushed nearly 10% higher to record levels. As is often the case, Kavcic said, this is mostly the result of composition. He noted banks and energy have struggled heading into the summer, which is "always a tough backdrop" for the TSX. In the meantime, he added, technology has lurched more than 20% higher in the S&P 500 (with a more than 30% weight). Even within the S&P 500, outsized gains in a few technology names are playing a big role, Kavcic said, while noting the standard index is up almost 10%, the equal-weight S&P 500 is up just 2% since the start of May