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Investing.com - U.S. new home sales unexpectedly fell in March, dampening optimism over the health of the housing market, official data showed on Monday.

In a report, the U.S. Commerce Department said new home sales declined by 1.5% to a seasonally adjusted 511,000 units last month.

New home sales in February were revised to show a 0.4% decline to 519,000 units, from the prior reading of a 2.0% gain.

Analysts had expected a 1.0% rise from the initial February number to a total of 520,000 units.

After the report, EUR/USD was trading at 1.1260 from around 1.1258 ahead of the release of the data, GBP/USD was at 1.4481 from 1.4489 earlier, while USD/JPY was at 111.01, compared to the prior 111.07.

The US dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was at 94.75, compared to 94.77 ahead of the report.

Meanwhile, U.S. stocks were trading lower after the open as the Dow 30 fell 81 points or 0.45%, the S&P 500 traded down 8 points or 0.37% , and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite lost 9 points or 0.18%.