Investing.com - Pending home sales in the U.S. barely edged forward in October and missed consensus, dampening optimism over the health of the housing sector, industry data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said its pending home sales index rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.1% last month, missing expectations for an increase of 0.2%.
The pending home sales index increased to 110.0 from the prior 109.9, which was revised from an initial reading of 110.0.
September’s reading was revised down to a 1.4% advance, compared to the initial reading of a 1.5% increase.
Year-on-year, pending home sales increased at an annualized rate of 1.8% in October.
NAR noted that the small uptick did take the index to its highest level since July and that contract activity in all four major regions was up from a year ago.
"Despite limited listings and steadfast price growth that's now carried into the fall, buyer demand has remained strong because of the consistently reliable job creation in a majority of metro areas," NAR chief economist Larry Yun said.
With contract activity holding steady, Yun expects existing sales to close out 2016 at a pace of around 5.36 million, which surpasses 2015 (5.25 million) and is the highest since 2006 (6.48 million).
After the report, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0588 from around 1.0600 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2432 from 1.2452 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 113.64 from 113.55 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 101.59 compared to 101.48 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets were trading mixed after the open. The Dow 30 gained 90 points, or 0.47%, the S&P 500 advanced 6 points, or 0.27%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 1 point, or 0.02%.