Crude oil settled higher on Thursday following a mixed session that was rocked by upbeat economic reports contrasted with a sharp increase in supplies.

The December contract for the commodity climbed 0.37%, equal to $0.32, to end the day at $86.05 per barrel on the New York Mercantile exchange. The day saw highs of $86.75 and lows of $85.23.

The previous day the commodity had ended the session below $86 for the first time since July.

It was reported that compared to a year previous, apparent oil demand had climbed 9.1% in September to an average of 9.8m barrels a day, the highest level that has been recorded.

The Energy Information Administration posted an increase in crude supplies of 5.9m barrels for the week ended October 19th.

Meanwhile, natural gas futures were lower after the Energy Information Administration said supply of the commodity had risen 67bn cubic feet in the same week. The November contract fell 0.46% to $3.43 per million British thermal units.

In metals, gold climbed 0.67% to end the day at $1,713 per troy ounce, platinum was flat at $1,562.70, and silver rose 1.45% to settle at $32.08 per troy ounce. Copper bucked the trend to close down 0.49% at $3.55 per pound.

NR

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