Investing.com - The number of building permits issues in the U.S. fell significantly more than expected in August, while housing starts also came in below forecasts, official data showed Thursday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said that the number of building permits issued last month dropped by 5.6% to a seasonally adjusted 998,000 units from July’s total of 1.057 million.
Analysts expected building permits to fall by 0.4% to 1.045 million units in August.
The report also showed that U.S. housing starts tumbled by 14.4% last month to hit a seasonally adjusted 956,000 units from July’s total of 1.117 million units, compared to expectations for an increase to 1.040 million.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.2859 from around 1.2870 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.6362 from 1.6365 earlier.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock index futures remained higher. The Dow 30 indicated a gain of 0.2% at the open, the S&P 500 pointed to a rise of 0.3%, while the NASDAQ 100 indicated an increase of 0.25%.