By CountingPips.com
U.S. housing starts, building permits and housing completions increased in the month of July according to data released by the Commerce Department on new residential construction. Housing Starts fell by 1.0 percent in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 581,000 following June’s total of a revised 587,000 starts. July’s total is down 37.7 percent on an annual basis when compared with July of 2008. The decline 
in housing starts was below the 598,000 annual rate the market forecasts were expecting for the month.
Building permits statistics, used as a predictor of future construction, showed a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 560,000 permits in July. This was a decrease of 1.8 percent compared to June and a 39.4 percent drop from July 2008 level. The July data in building permits was also below the market forecasts that were expecting permits to number approximately 576,000 for the month.
Housing Completions for July decreased when compared to June as completions fell to an annual rate of 802,000 privately-owned housing completions. This is an decrease of 0.9 percent when compared to June’s completion totals and is 26.4 percent below the July 2008 level.
Producer Prices fall after three months of increases.
The Producer Price Index, released in a separate report by the Department of Labor, fell more than expected in July. Producer prices fell by 0.9 percent in the month of July following an increase of 1.8 percent in June and an increase of 0.2 percent in each of May and April. The annual rate of change for July showed that producer prices were 6.8 percent lower than the July of 2008 level following June’s annual rate that registered a 4.6 percent decrease. Market forecasts were expecting monthly producer prices to fall by 0.2 percent in July and the annual rate to register a 5.8 percent decline.
Helping to contribute to the lower ppi in July was the energy index which decreased by 2.4 percent for the month after increasing by 6.6 percent in June. Consumer food prices also dropped by 1.5 percent in July after gaining by 1.1 percent in June.
Core producer prices, excluding food and energy prices, fell by 0.1 percent in July following a rise of 0.5 percent in June. On an annual basis, core producer prices advanced by 2.6 percent for July compared with an increase of 3.3 percent in June. Market forecasts were expecting a 0.1 percent gain in monthly core prices and a 2.8 percent annual increase.
Dollar is lower in Forex Trade Today.
The U.S. dollar has been lower against the other major currencies in forex trading today. The dollar has been weaker versus the euro, British pound, Australian dollar, Japanese yen, Swiss franc, New Zealand dollar and the Canadian dollar at 3:19 pm ET in the US trading session.
USD/CAD Chart – The US Dollar falling today versus the Canadian Dollar in forex trading and trading around 1.1012 after reaching a high of 1.1124 yesterday.
