(RTTNews) - The dollar was narrowly mixed Tuesday morning in New York ahead of the latest reading on the struggling US housing market.
Stock futures are indicating a positive start to the trading day on Wall Street, alleviating some of the risk aversion that has emerged over the past week.
A slew of economic data and key earnings news from Walmart will keep currency traders busy throughout the morning.
The Commerce Department will table its report on housing starts and building permits for July at 8.30 a.m. ET. Economists expect that housing starts increased to 555,000 from the 549,000 reported for the previous month.
At the same time, the Labor Department will release its report on producer price index for July. Economists expect the headline index to rise by 0.2% and the core producer price index to show 0.1% growth in July following an unexpected 0.5% decline in the headline index and a 0.1% rise in core PPI during the previous month.
At 9.15 a.m. ET, the Federal Reserve will release its report on industrial production and capacity utilization for July. Economists estimate 0.6% growth in industrial production for the month, while capacity utilization is expected to come in at 74.5%.
The dollar eased a bit versus the euro, hitting $1.2900 before steadying ahead of the housing data. The buck has pulled back sharply since reaching a 4-year peak of $1.1805 back in June.
Against the sterling, the dollar strengthened slightly to 1.5620, having touched a 6-month low of 1.5998 earlier in August.
There was little movement for the dollar versus the yen, a day after official data showed the Japanese economy was nearly stagnant in the second quarter. The buck held near 85.50, staying away from this month's 1995 low of 84.71.
