Investing.com – The number of housing starts and building permits both fell in July after surging in the prior month, 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 unexpectedly decreased by 4.8% from the month before to hit a seasonally adjusted 1.155 million units last month from June’s total of 1.213 million units, a slightly downward revision from the initial 1.215 million.
Analysts had expected July’s reading to rise 0.5% from the prior month’s initial reading to 1.220 million.
Meanwhile, the number of building permits issued fell by 4.1% to a seasonally adjusted 1.223 million units last month from 1.275 million the month before.
Economists had forecast permits to decrease 2.0% to 1.250 million units in July.
After the report, EUR/USD traded at 1.1716 compared to 1.1711 before the release, GBP/USD was at 1.2874 from 1.2870 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 110.73 from 110.81 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, traded at 93.83, compared to 93.86 previously.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat to higher open. The blue-chip Dow futures gained 52 points, or 0.23%, the S&P 500 futures rose 5 points, or 0.21%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 15 points, or 0.26%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures was at $1,277.63, compared to $1,276.19 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $47.70 a barrel from $47.66 earlier.