Investing.com - U.S. existing home sales rose to a 13-month high in October, fuelling optimism over the health of the housing market, industry data showed on Thursday.
In a report, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales increased 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted 5.26 million units last month from 5.18 million in September.
Analysts had expected existing home sales to fall 0.3% to 5.15 million units in October.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says the housing market this year has been a tale of two halves.
"Sales activity in October reached its highest annual pace of the year as buyers continue to be encouraged by interest rates at lows not seen since last summer, improving levels of inventory and stabilizing price growth,” he said.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.2536 from around 1.2554 ahead of the release of the data, while GBP/USD was at 1.5714 from 1.5729 earlier.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets were turned mixed. The Dow 30 fell 0.15%, the S&P 500 dipped 0.1%, while the Nasdaq 100 tacked on 0.15%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,190.00 a troy ounce, compared to $1,192.40 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $75.21 a barrel from $75.04 earlier.