Dollar Pulling Back On Weak Housing Data

The dollar is losing ground against its major rivals Monday afternoon. Traders were disappointed by the release of the weaker than expected homebuilder confidence report this morning.

Reflecting growing affordability concerns, the National Association of Home Builders released a report on Monday showing a sharp drop in U.S. homebuilder confidence in the month of November. The report said the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index plunged to 60 in November after inching up by one point to 68 in October. Economists had expected the index to edge down to 67.

The dollar rose to an early high of $1.1393 against the Euro Monday, but has since retreated to over a 1-week low of $1.1450.

Eurozone's current account surplus decreased in September, figures from the European Central Bank showed on Monday. The current account surplus fell to EUR 17 billion from EUR 24 billion in August. In the same month last year, the surplus was EUR 40 billion.

Eurozone construction output increased in September after declining in the previous month, but the pace of growth nearly halved sequentially in the third quarter, figures from Eurostat showed on Monday. Construction output grew 2 percent from August, when it declined 0.6 percent, revised from 0.5 percent.

The buck climbed to a high of $1.2793 against the pound sterling Monday, but has since eased back to around $1.2860.

UK house prices declined sharply in November at the fastest monthly pace in seven years, figures from the property market data website Rightmove showed on Monday. Average asking prices dropped GBP 5,222 or 1.7 percent month-on-month to GBP 302,023 in November. That was biggest November drop since 2012, Rightmove said.

The greenback reached a high of Y112.875 against the Japanese Yen Monday, but has since dropped to a 3-week low of Y112.475.

Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 449.3 billion yen in October, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday. That missed forecasts for a shortfall of 70.0 billion yen following the 131,3 billion yen surplus in September.