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Data released on Friday showed that U.S. housing starts fell to the lowest level since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in July, dragged down by a decline in single-family homes, as weak demand has led to high inventories.

The number of new housing starts in the United States in July was 1.238 million units per year, the lowest level since June 2020, lower than the expectations of all economists surveyed by the media. The market expected 1.333 million units, and the previous value was revised down from 1.353 million units to 1.329 million units. New housing starts in July fell 6.8% month-on-month, and the expected decline was 1.5%. The previous value was revised down from an increase of 3% to an increase of 1.1%.

Among them, the number of new housing starts for single-family homes fell to 851,000, while the number of new housing starts for multi-family homes rose to 387,000.

The annualized rate of building permits in the United States in July was 1.396 million, which was expected to be 1.425 million and the previous value was 1.446 million. The building permits in July fell by 4% month-on-month, which was expected to fall by 2% and the previous value was an increase of 3.4%. The number of building permits can be used to predict future construction starts.

Financial blog Zerohedge commented that after the unexpected increase in June data, July's new housing starts and construction permit data unexpectedly fell month-on-month, and the decline was large. This is because homebuilders' confidence has fallen to a low point this year.

Housing completions fell to 1.529 million in July from 1.696 million in the previous month. Among them, single-family home completions rose to 1.054 million, while multi-family home completions fell to 475,000.

New housing starts in the United States fell to the lowest level since May 2020 and fell far short of expectations. Market expectations for rate cuts increased, pushing gold higher and the dollar and U.S. bond yields lower. Spot gold hit a new intraday high, breaking through $2,492 per ounce.