The US dollar extended its bullish trend against major currencies despite weak housing data released today. The housing stats released today indicated an 18.7% decline from the 24.7% gain that was witnessed in October.
The housing starts released by the Census Bureau in collaboration with the Department of Housing and Urban Development showed a significant decrease in new housing starts for November. The data released indicated that housing starts had fallen to a seasonally adjusted annual figure of 1.09 million as compared to the revised October figure of 1.34 million.
Economists polled by Reuters indicated that the lower housing starts might have been triggered by cooler weather in November as well as payback from October’s surge. However, despite the decline in housing starts, the number of building permits issued in November stood at 1.20 million, which augurs well for the housing sector.
Mortgage rates have increased significantly since Donald Trump was elected president on November 8. Currently, the 30-year mortgage rate has risen by 60 basis points to an average rate of 4.16% as of yesterday.
The AUD/USD was also trading at 0.7296 as at 17:52 GMT, which is below its three-week low of 0.7330. The USD/CAD also rose to new highs of 1.3394 although it did not reach Thursday’s high of 1.3415. The NZD/USD traded at a high of 0.6981 having tested lows of 0.6927 during intraday trading.
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