Investing.com - The number of building permits issues in the U.S. fell unexpectedly in January, while housing starts also missed forecasts, official data showed Wednesday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said that the number of building permits issued last month decreased by 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted 1.053 million units from December’s total of 1.060 million.
Analysts expected building permits to rise by 0.8% to 1.069 million units in January.
The report also showed that U.S. housing starts declined by 2.0% last month to hit a seasonally adjusted 1.065 million units from December’s total of 1.087 million units, worse than expectations for a decline of 1.7% to 1.070 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1372 from around 1.1373 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.5425 from 1.5426 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 119.24 from 119.29 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.40, compared to 94.41 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a modestly lower open. The Dow futures pointed to a loss of 0.1% at the open, the S&P 500 futures inched down 0.15%, while the Nasdaq 100 futures shed 0.1%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,206.30 a troy ounce, compared to $1,205.10 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $53.20 a barrel from $53.23 earlier.