Investing.com - U.S. new home sales fell back from a more-than-eight-year high in May, with prior readings suffering a downward revision, dampening optimism over the health of the housing market, official data showed on Tuesday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said new home sales fell by 6.0% to a seasonally adjusted 551,000 units last month.
New home sales in April were revised to show a 12.3% increase to 586,000 units, from the prior reading of a 16.6% jump to 619,000 units.
Analysts had expected an 8.7% decline from the initial April number to a total of 560,000 units.
After the report that was released simultaneously with the Conference Board’s May leading index, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1386 from around 1.1376 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4809 from 1.4793 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 105.77, compared to the prior 105.66.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 93.33, compared to 93.40 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stocks were trading higher after the open as the Dow 30 gained 147 points or 0.82%, the S&P 500 traded up 17 points or 0.82% , and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite rose 42 points or 0.86%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,264.85 a troy ounce, compared to $1,266.20 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $49.80 a barrel from $49.72 earlier.