Not all home sales are equal: after a positive surprise from existing homes, new home sales plunge 11.4% and hit 481K. The previous figure was revised up to 543K, a very marginal upgrade.
This completes three misses in one day. The USD is just a bit weaker in the initial reaction.
New home sales were predicted to slide to 514K in March from 539K in February. This figure was one of the lone positive numbers during the quarter, which saw too many disappointments.
Markets were mixed towards the publication.
New home make a small part of the market, but they trigger a wide array of activity such as infrastructure, schools, public buildings, new businesses, etc. Existing home sales beat predictions in March. This was released yesterday and lent a temporary helping hand to the dollar.
The Markit Flash manufacturing PMI for April was predicted to slide to 55.5 points in April from 55.7 in March. The actual number was disappointing: 54.2 points.
And beforehand, jobless claims ticked up to 295K, marginally worse than predicted. Tomorrow we get durable goods orders to close the week, before the all important GDP numbers and Fed decision next week.
More: EUR/USD: USD To Strike Back – Nordea
