US: Housing Starts rose 16.9% in December vs. -3.8% expected

• Housing Starts in US increased 16.9% to beat market expectation.
• US Dollar Index extends recovery to fresh three-day highs.

Housing Starts in December rose 16.9%  in the US, the data published jointly by the US Census Bureau and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development showed on Friday. This reading beat the market expectation of -3.8% by a wide margin.

On a negative note, Building Permits fell 3.9% to come in worse than analysts' estimate of -1.9%.

The US Dollar Index edged higher on these data and was last seen adding 0.23% on a daily basis at 97.52.