Oil futures edged higher in choppy price action Thursday as traders attempted to make sense of conflicting news reports around U.S.-China trade talks and parsed OPEC’s monthly assessment of global supply and demand.

West Texas Intermediate crude for November delivery rose 23 cents, or 0.4%, to $52.82 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the global benchmark, December Brent crude gained 10 cents, or 0.2%, to trade at $58.42 a barrel.

Bloomberg News reported Wednesday night that the White House could implement a previously agreed upon currency deal with China ahead of schedule, and suspend tariff hikes due to take effect next week. The New York Times reported that President Donald Trump greenlighted issuing licenses to some U.S. companies to conduct business with Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies.

Earlier, the South China Morning Post had reported that talks earlier this week laying the groundwork for high-level talks due to begin Thursday had made little progress and that China’s main trade delegation would cut short its visit from two days to one.

Source : Market Watch