NEW YORK, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Crude prices rallied Thursday after several straight declines, boosted by U.S. positive results of weekly initial jobless claims and orders for durable goods.
The Labor Department said U.S. initial jobless claims posted a sizable decline of 23,000 in the week ending Oct. 20, following a revised 46,000 surge in the prior week.
New factory orders for durables rebounded sharply by 9.9 percent in September after a big 13.1 percent plunge in August. The market consensus was for a 7 percent boost. The comeback was largely due to a rally in aircraft orders.
Oil got further supports as the British government data showed its gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1 percent in the third quarter after contracting 0.4 percent in the second quarter, beating expectation of a 0.6 percent gain.
The market was awaiting the U.S. GDP results for the third quarter due Friday. Any growth rate bigger than the expected 1.8 percent will offer a lift to oil prices.
But the gains were limited by the lingering heavy supplies and weakening demand. The U.S. crude inventories added another 5.9 million barrels last week, while the big North Sea oil fields were scheduled to restart after maintenance.
Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose 32 cents, or 0.37 percent, to settle at 86.05 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude for December delivery gained 64 cents, or 0.59 percent, to close at 108.49 dollars a barrel.
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