Investing.com - U.S. new home sales registered an unexpected decline in October, dampening optimism over the health of the housing market, official data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said new home sales fell by 1.9% to a seasonally adjusted 563,000 units last month.
Analysts had expected a 0.3% increase from the previous month to a total of 593,000 units in October.
New home sales in September were revised to 574,000 units, or a 1.2% gain, from the prior reading of a 3.1% rise to 593,000 units.
Immediately following the report, that was released simultaneously with the update to the Michigan consumer sentiment for November, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0551 from around 1.0553 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2381 from 1.2401 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 112.40, compared to the prior 112.31.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 101.78, compared to 101.74 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stocks were trading lower after the open as the Dow 30 slipped 5 points, or 0.03%, the S&P 500 declined 6 points, or 0.27% , and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down 26 points, or 0.48%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,186.00 a troy ounce, compared to $1,190.15 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $47.66 a barrel from $47.55 earlier.