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Investing.com - The number of housing starts issued in the U.S. rose more than expected in February, but building permits fell much more than forecast, dampening optimism over the health of the U.S. housing sector, official data showed Wednesday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said that housing starts rose 5.2% to hit a seasonally adjusted 1.178 million units last month from January’s total of 1.120 million units, an upward revision from the initial 1.099 million. Analysts had expected a rise 4.6% to 1.150 million.
Meanwhile, the number of building permits issued declined 3.1% to a seasonally adjusted 1.202 million units from 1.204 million. Economists had forecast a drop of 0.1% to 1.167 million units in February.
With U.S. inflation data published at the same time, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1087 from around 1.1097 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4083 from 1.4090 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 113.64 from 113.57 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 96.90, compared to 96.85 ahead of the report.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,229.80 a troy ounce, compared to $1,233.50 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $36.95 a barrel from $37.00 earlier.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures were trading in the red. The blue-chip Dow futures fell 17 points, or 0.10%, the S&P 500 futures lost 3 points, or 0.16%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 3 points, or 0.07%.