Investing.com - U.S. new home sales increased in February after a sharp decrease in the prior month, soothing concern over the health of the housing market, official data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said new home sales rose by 2.0% to a seasonally adjusted 512,000 units last month.
New home sales in January were revised to show a 7.0% drop to 502,000 units, from the prior reading of a 9.2% decline.
Analysts had expected a 3.2% rise from the initial January number to a total of 510,000 units.
After the report at 14:06GMT or 10:06AM ET, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1180 from around 1.1189 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4113 from 1.4124 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 112.69, compared to the prior 112.71.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 96.09, compared to 96.01 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stocks were trading lower after the open as the Dow 30 fell 51 points or 0.29%, the S&P 500 traded down 7 points or 0.35% , and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite lost 29 points or 0.61%.