Housing starts are up 8.3% to 1.215 million and building permits rise 7.4% to 1.254 million annualized. Both figures are ahead of expectations. The previous figure for housing starts was revised up to 1.122 million. It’s all good.
The dollar is not really taking advantage of this. Is this a bearish sign for USD bulls? A currency that cannot take advantage of good data basically tells us it is weak. However, these are not top-tier figures like retail sales and inflation data that we got on Friday.
The US was expected to report a rise in housing starts to 1.155 in June from 1.092 in May. Building permits were also projected to advance from 1.168 to 1.2 million annualized. There is a correlation between housing and the wider economy, but the figures can often offset each other.
Currency markets were relatively stable after the big US dollar sell-off yesterday, inspired by the failure of Trumpcare.
Tomorrow we have two rate decisions, first from the BOJ and then from the ECB.
