By CountingPips.com
U.S. Pending Homes sales rose for the fifth straight month in June according to the monthly report produced by the National Association of Realtors. The NAR report showed that pending home sales contracts signed by buyers increased 3.6 percent in June following a revised 0.1 
percent increase in May. June marked the first time since July 2003 that pending home sales had increased for five consecutive months. On an annual basis, the pending home sales level is 6.7 percent above the June 2008 level.
Market forecastors had predicted the sales data would show an increase of approximately 0.7 percent for the month.
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun commented in the report about the increased sales figures this month, “Historically low mortgage interest rates, affordable home prices and large selection are encouraging buyers who’ve been on the sidelines. Activity has been consistently much stronger for lower priced homes.”
Contributing to the sales rise for June was a 7.1 percent monthly gain in the South while sales of new homes in the West advanced by 2.9 percent. Pending home sales edged up by 0.4 percent and by 0.8 percent in the Midwest.
US Dollar mixed in Forex Trading today.
The U.S. dollar has been mixed today in forex trading against the other major currencies since the start of the day at 00:00GMT. The American currency has been trading higher versus the British pound, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar and Canadian dollar while the dollar is lower versus the Japanese yen and trading almost unchanged against the euro and Swiss franc.
The euro is trading virtually unchanged versus the dollar so far today as the EUR/USD has from its 1.4390 opening at 00:00 GMT to trading at 1.4391 in the U.S. trading session at 3:12pm EST according to currency data from Oanda.
The British pound has declined slightly against the USD as the GBP/USD has gone from its 1.6951 opening exchange rate to trading at 1.6924 usd per gbp. The dollar has edged down versus the Japanese yen and trades at 95.21 after opening at the day at the 95.35 exchange rate.
The dollar has gained versus the Canadian loonie as the USD/CAD trades at the exchange rate of 1.0732 after opening the day at 1.0670.
The dollar is trading almost unchanged against the Swiss franc as the USD/CHF trades at 1.0611 after opening at 1.0614 today while the dollar has been slightly stronger against the Australian dollar and versus the New Zealand dollar. The AUD/USD trades at 0.8428 after a 0.8446 opening while the NZD/USD trades at 0.6553 today after opening at the exchange rate of 0.6577.
USD/CAD Chart – The US Dollar advancing today versus the Canadian Dollar in forex trading as the USD/CAD reversed some of the gains it lost yesterday.
