Investing.com - The number of housing starts issued in the U.S. fell more than expected in March, although building permits beat expectations after a larger-than-forecast gain, painting a mixed picture of the health of the U.S. housing sector, official data showed Tuesday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said that housing starts fell by 6.8% from the month before to hit a seasonally adjusted 1.215 million units last month from February’s total of 1.303 million units, an upward revision from the initial 1.288 million.
Analysts had expected March’s reading to fall 3.0% from the prior month’s initial reading.
Meanwhile, the number of building permits issued rose 3.6% to a seasonally adjusted 1.260 million units last month from 1.213 million the month before.
Economists had forecast permits to rise 2.8% to 1.250 million units in March.
After the report, EUR/USD was unchanged at 1.0686 compared to before the release, GBP/USD was at 1.2679 from 1.2672 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 108.81 from 108.77 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, traded at 99.87, compared to 99.86 previously.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures were trading slightly lower. The blue-chip Dow futures dropped 61 points, or 0.30%, the S&P 500 futures lost 7 points, or 0.29%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded down 12 points, or 0.22%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures was unchanged at $1,287.00 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $52.33 a barrel from $52.30 earlier.