Oil mixed in choppy trade before U.S. inventories, OPEC+ meeting | Reuters

Oil mixed in choppy trade before U.S. inventories, OPEC+ meeting | Reuters

Oil traded below $85 a barrel on Tuesday, but remained close to a three-year high in choppy trade ahead of weekly U.S. supply reports expected to show a rise in crude inventories as traders also looked toward Thursday's OPEC+ meeting.

Analysts in a Reuters poll expected weekly U.S. crude inventory data to show a rise of 1.6 million barrels . Industry group the American Petroleum Institute releases the first of this week's two supply reports at 2030 GMT.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude settled down 14 cents, or 0.2%, to $83.91. Earlier it had dropped more than $1 a barrel. Brent crude settled up 1 cent at $84.72 a barrel, having traded negative for much of the session.

"There's a little bit of uncertainty about OPEC and that's holding the market back," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago. "But we are still in a strong uptrend."