US homebuilding activity dropped in April; however, revisions of the preceding month's readings suggested that homebuilding activity continued improving. The Census Bureau reported on Tuesday that housing starts declined 2.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.17M units last month, following March's upwardly revised 1.28M-unit pace and falling behind expectations for a 3.7% rise to a 1.26M-unit pace. Analysts suggested that a slowdown in homebuilding activity had been driven by unusually rainy weather in California. On an annual basis, housing starts were up 10.5% compared to the same period a year ago.
Meanwhile, building permits fell 2.5% to a seasonally adjusted pace of 1.23M units, whereas analysts anticipated a slight climb of 0.2% to a 1.27M-unit pace in April. With building permits higher than housing starts, homebuilding activity is set to rebound in the upcoming months. Later in the day, the Federal Reserve reported that industrial production in the United States rose 1.0% in April, the largest gain since February 2014, while analysts expected industrial output to climb just 0.4%.
Minor US data
USD/JPY attempts to undergo a correction
The USD/JPY pair experienced a rather devastating blow on Wednesday, losing more than 200 pips amid continued political turmoil in the US. After such a large slump the Buck is likely to undergo a bullish correction, unless political pressure keeps weakening the Greenback. Moreover, the monthly PP and the weekly S3 around 110.45 are providing rather strong support, which could be sufficient for a recovery to prevail. The nearest resistance rests at 111.40, namely the weekly S2, most likely marking the intraday high. The base case scenario is a close somewhere between 110.50 and 111.50.Daily chart
There are 61% of traders holding short positions today (previously 66%), while the share of buy orders added 10% points, having risen to a total of 59%.
Right now 53% of OANDA clients are bulls, shifting to a bull dominance situation. In the meantime, Saxo Bank clients have also increased their long position amount, as 58% of open positions are bullish.
Spreads (avg, pip) / Trading volume / Volatility
Traders are becoming increasingly bullish on the Dollar