Investing.com - U.S. existing home sales rose less than expected in February, dampening optimism over the health of the housing market, industry data showed on Monday.
In a report, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales increased 1.2% to a seasonally adjusted 4.88 million units last month from 4.82 million in January. Analysts had expected existing home sales to rise 1.7% to 4.90 million units in February.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says although February sales showed modest improvement, there’s been some stagnation in the market in recent months.
“Insufficient supply appears to be hampering prospective buyers in several areas of the country and is hiking prices to near unsuitable levels,” he said.
Yun added, “Severe below-freezing winter weather likely had an impact on sales as more moderate activity was observed in the Northeast and Midwest compared to other regions of the country."
EUR/USD was trading at 1.0922 from around 1.0920 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.4920 from 1.4917 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 119.76 from 119.73 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 97.45, compared to 97.41 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets were mixed after the open. The Dow 30 inched up 0.25%, the S&P 500 rose 0.15%, while the Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.25%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,183.40 a troy ounce, compared to $1,182.30 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $46.80 a barrel from $46.84 earlier.