Daily Financial News - Mortgage | Real Estate | Stock Market

Housing Starts Fall. Single Family Building Permits On Hold -  The Commerce Department released October New Residential Construction: Building Permits, Housing Starts, and Housing Completions data this morning.

Today's data was a big surprise to most market participants as economists were expecting housing starts to increase to 600,000 and permits to increase to a 580,000 annual rate.

Housing Starts data estimates how much new residential real estate construction occurred in the previous month. In last month's data, which reported on construction in September, new housing starts rose less than expected to 590,000 annualized units from a revised lower 587,000 pace in August, economists were expecting a rise of 610,000 units.

Stocks hit a roadblock - (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks closed slightly lower Wednesday, paring deeper losses, after a drop in new home construction made investors jittery about the economic recovery and wary profit outlooks weighed on the technology sector.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 11 points, or 0.1%, to close at 10,426.3. The S&P 500 fell less than one point to 1,109.8. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 10 points, or 0.5%, to 2,193.1.

Meanwhile, the dollar fell broadly against rival currencies, with the euro climbing near $1.50 at one point.

The weak dollar helped push gold prices to another all-time high, while oil prices closed above $79 a barrel.

Refinance Applications Down 1.4%. Purchase Index at 12 Year Low - In this week's release, which reports on loan application activity for the week ending November 13, 2009, new loan application fell 2.5%, even as the 30 year fixed-rate mortgage fell 0.7% to 4.83. The refinance index decreased 1.4% and the purchase index fell 4.7%. This is the sixth consecutive decline for the purchase index and is the lowest read since November 1997.