Investing.com - U.S. existing home sales fell more than expected in October, but remained in territory consistent with a healthy housing market, industry data showed on Monday.
In a report, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales decreased 3.4% to a seasonally adjusted 5.36 million units last month from 5.55 million in September. Analysts had expected existing home sales to fall 2.3% to 5.40 million units in October.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says a sales cooldown in October was likely given the pullback in contract signings the last couple of months.
"New and existing-home supply has struggled to improve so far this fall, leading to few choices for buyers and no easement of the ongoing affordability concerns still prevalent in some markets," he said.
Yun added, "Furthermore, the mixed signals of slowing economic growth and volatility in the financial markets slightly tempered demand and contributed to the decreasing pace of sales."
EUR/USD was trading at 1.0640 from around 1.0648 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.5174 from 1.5178 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 122.85 from 122.82 earlier.
The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 99.70, compared to 99.66 ahead of the report.
Meanwhile, U.S. stock markets were mixed after the open. The Dow 30 shed 7 points, or 0.05%, the S&P 500 tacked on 2 points, or 0.05%, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 10 points, or 0.2%.
Elsewhere, in the commodities market, gold futures traded at $1,070.60 a troy ounce, compared to $1,071.50 ahead of the data, while crude oil traded at $41.69 a barrel from $41.50 earlier.