Investing.com - Pending home sales in the U.S. rose more than expected in March, bolstering optimism over the health of the housing sector, industry data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, the National Association of Realtors said its pending home sales index rose by a seasonally adjusted 1.4% last month, beating expectations for a gain of 0.5%.
Pending home sales in February advanced 3.4%, whose figure was revised slightly down from a previously reported gain of 3.5%.
Year-on-year, pending home sales increased at annualized rate of 2.9%, following a gain of 5.0% in the prior month.
"Despite supply deficiencies in plenty of areas, contract activity was fairly strong in a majority of markets in March,” Larry Yun, NAR chief economist, said.
"This spring's surprisingly low mortgage rates are easing some of the affordability pressures potential buyers are experiencing and are taking away some of the sting from home prices that are still rising too fast and above wage growth," he added.
As markets awaited the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decision later in the day, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1322 from around 1.1325 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4580 from 1.4582 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 111.27 from 111.25 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.34, compared to 94.30 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets traded lower after the open. The Dow 30 lost 0.13%, the S&P 500 fell 0.13%, while the Nasdaq Composite shed 0.79%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,248.85 a troy ounce, compared to $1,249.00 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $44.95 a barrel from $44.99 earlier.