U.S. housing starts likely to have dropped in November, single-family starts to have eased further

U.S. housing starts data for the month of November is set to come out tomorrow. According to a Wells Fargo research report, the housing starts are likely to have come in below consensus after last month’s rise of 1.5 percent to 1.228 million unit pace. All of the rise in the last month was driven by the volatile multifamily sector, which has seen some renewed strength in recent months as apartment demand has proved to be much more resilient than had been expected in 2018, noted Wells Fargo.

In October, single-family starts had dropped 1.8 percent after a fall of 1 percent seen in September. Single-family starts are expected to have dropped further in November. In recent months, sales have decelerated and the November NAHB Wells Fargo Homebuilders Index fell eight points in the months, with expectations for future sales falling 10 points.

“New home inventories have also risen, which we believe will cause builders to hold off on speculative projects. Apartment starts were also likely negatively impacted by fires out West and heavy rain across much of the South”, added Wells Fargo.

At 18:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was slightly bearish at -51.7492. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex