U.S. housing starts jump in December, beating consensus
Investing.com
Published Jan 19, 2017 08:33AM ET
Mixed readings on housing data, starts beat but building permits miss
Investing.com - The number of housing starts issued in the U.S. rose more than expected in December, although building permits unexpectedly declined, giving a mixed read on the health of the U.S. housing sector, official data showed Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said that housing starts increased by 11.3% to hit a seasonally adjusted 1.226 million units last month from November’s total of 1.102 million units, an upward revision from the initial 1.090 million. Analysts had expected December’s reading to rise to 1.200 million units.
Meanwhile, the number of building permits issued unexpectedly decreased by 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted 1.210 million units last month from 1.212 million in November.
Economists had forecast permits to rise to 1.225 million units in December.
After the report, which was released simultaneous with weekly jobless claims, the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing index, and the beginning of the press conference with European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0629 from around 1.0671 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2294 from 1. 2327 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 114.95 from 114.55 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, traded at 101.31, compared to 101.00 previously.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures were trading slightly lower. The blue-chip Dow futures dropped 11 points, or 0.06%, the S&P 500 futures lost 1 point, or 0.06%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 2 points, or 0.04%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,201.65 a troy ounce, compared to $1,204.85 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $51.55 a barrel from $51.58 earlier.
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Written By: Investing.com
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