12:12 PM EDT, 08/21/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Toronto Stock Exchange, which opened 40 points higher, has ceded some of its gains and is up 18 points at midday.

The mining sector is the biggest gainer, up 1.2%. Technology, which is 0.4% higher, is the second biggest gainer.

Oil traded higher early on Wednesday, after three losing sessions that came on weak China demand and easing international tensions, and despite a report showed an unexpected rise in U.S. inventories last week.

Gold prices dipper from a record high even as treasury yields eased ahead of a key speech from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday that could firm expectations the central bank is ready to begin lowering interest rates.

It's not just US monetary policy and rates that is in focus. A CIBC FICC Strategy note on Wednesday noted the market has priced the Bank of Canada to deliver a 'traditional' easing cycle, with the policy interest rate now expected to dip slightly below the midpoint of the Bank's estimated neutral range. Within the context of a more activist FOMC, CIBC said the question for Canadian monetary policy is whether the Bank now has cover to 'go faster' or, maintain a gradual approach. The risk, of course, is the BoC doesn't choose to pause and therefore reaches, and breaches, neutral much quicker than we expect, CIBC added.

In a big picture piece on equities, Scott Wren over at Wells Fargo Investment Institute said markets will "likely be choppy and volatile within a wider range" in coming months. He added: "Data over the past couple of weeks has largely supported our view that, while slowing, the economy has only a low probability of falling into a recession. We think the near-to-intermediate term will likely result in a range-bound equity market."

On the home front, Canada stock pickers await the start of the third quarter earnings season for the nation's big banks, starting Thursday with TD Bank (TD.TO, TD). Focus here will be on TD's U.S. results and strategy after it bungled a US$13.4 billion takeover of First Horizon Corp. and faced a money-laundering probe into its U.S. branches. Bloomberg noted the lender faces the threat of billions of dollars in fines and, maybe worse, the prospect that regulators will impose limits on future U.S. growth.