Investing.com - The number of housing starts issued in the U.S. jumped higher in October, while building permits, considered a leading indicator, also rose according to official data released on Thursday.
The Commerce Department said that housing starts surged 25.5% to hit a seasonally adjusted 1.323 million unit rate last month from September’s total of 1.154 million units.
It was the fastest increase since August 2007.
Analysts had expected a rise of 7.0% from the initial number to 1.156 million.
The number of building permits issued rose 0.3% to a seasonally adjusted 1.229 million units last month from 1.225 million.
Economists had forecast decline of 2.9% to 1.198 million units.
After the release, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0705 from around 1.0716 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2446 from 1.2450 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 109.44 from 109.31 previously.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 100.34.