Investing.com - U.S. new home sales registered an unexpected increase in September, although the prior month's data suffered a downward revision, official data showed on Wednesday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said new home sales advanced by 3.1% to a seasonally adjusted 593,000 units last month.
New home sales in August were revised down to 575,000 units, or an 8.6% drop, from the prior reading of a 7.6% decline to 609,000 units.
Analysts had expected a 1.0% decline from the previous month's initial estimate to a total of 600,000 units in September.
After the report, EUR/USD was trading at 1.0922 from around 1.0931 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.2217 from 1.2220 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 104.26, compared to the prior 104.19.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 98.49, compared to 98.43 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stocks were trading lower after the open. The Dow 30 fell 91 points or 0.50%, the S&P 500 dropped 11 points or 0.53%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite traded down 36 points or 0.73%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,270.15 a troy ounce, compared to $1,273.05 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $49.14 a barrel from $49.05 earlier.