Investing.com - The number of housing starts issued in the U.S. fell unexpectedly in January, while building permits also declined, dampening optimism over the health of the U.S. housing sector, official data showed Wednesday.
In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said that housing starts fell 3.8% to hit a seasonally adjusted 1.099 million units last month from December’s total of 1.143 million units. Analysts had expected a rise 2.5% to 1.170 million.
Meanwhile, the number of building permits issued declined 0.2% to a seasonally adjusted 1.202 million units from 1.204 million. Economists had forecast a drop of 0.1% to 1.200 million units in January.
EUR/USD was trading at 1.1128 from around 1.1130 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4295 from 1.4300 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 114.20 from 114.18 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 96.98, compared to 96.94 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open. The blue-chip Dow futures climbed 103 points, or 0.64%, the S&P 500 futures rose 14 points, or 0.71%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 34 points, or 0.82%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,208.70 a troy ounce, compared to $1,208.10 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $29.90 a barrel from $29.94 earlier.