North American markets may struggle at the open Thursday, hampered by higher oil prices and a pair of weak sales forecasts from chip makers Xilinx and Altera.

Crude-oil prices rose 45¢ to US$42.39 a barrel in early trading Thursday, a day after oil prices climbed on an industry report indicating weaker supplies.

In other economic news, the U.S. Labor Department said import prices rose 0.2% in November as oil prices began to decline, helping to moderate external inflation pressures on the economy. Meanwhile, U.S. initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 last week.

There are no economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

Energy and technology issues, with a last-minute boost from financial stocks, kept the S&P/TSX composite in the black on Wednesday, while a rising U.S. dollar gave U.S. investors renewed life.

At close, the S&P/TSX composite index finished ahead 12.79 points or 0.14% to 9,003.74. The mining-heavy S&P/TSX Venture composite index fell victim to slipping gold prices, losing 30.89 points or 1.80% to 1,681.30.

In New York, the Wall Street was encouraged as the dollar gained against the Japanese yen after Japan’s government reported slower-than-expected economic growth in its most recent quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial average rebounded from Tuesday’s 100-plus point loss to finish up by 53.65 or 0.51% to 10,494.23. The S&P 500 index added 5.74 or 0.49% at 1,182.81 and the Nasdaq composite index gained 11.45 or 0.54% to 2,126.11.