By CountingPips.com
U.S. Housing Starts and Building Permits increased in the month of June according to data released by the Commerce Department on new residential construction. Housing Starts grew by 3.6 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 582,000, an increase from May’s 562,000 estimated housing starts. June’s total on an annual 
basis, despite the monthly increase, is still down 46.0 percent compared with June of 2008. The housing starts data surpassed economic forecasts that were expecting 530,000 starts for the month.
Building permits statistics, used as a predictor of future construction, showed a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 563,000 permits in June which is an increase of 3.0 percent compared to May. On an annual basis, June’s total is 52.0 percent below the level of June 2008. The permits data also surpassed forecasts that were predicting 524,000 permits in the month of June.
Housing Completions for June decreased when compared to May with an annual rate of 818,000 privately-owned housing completions. This is a decrease of 0.4 percent from May and June’s annual rate is 27.7 percent below the June 2008 level.
US Dollar showing mixed results in quiet trading.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed in forex trading today against the major currencies with trading being quiet this morning and showing very little movements as of 10:55 am EST. The dollar is showing gains against the Japanese yen, British pound and Swiss franc while falling to lower levels versus the Australian dollar and Canadian dollar since the beginning of the day at 00:00 GMT. The dollar is trading virtually unchanged so far today against the euro and New Zealand dollar.
USD/JPY Chart – The US dollar rising today verses the Japanese Yen in forex trading and ascending back above the 94.00 level. (21-hour simple moving average in green, 55-hour simple moving average in purple)
