Homebuilder stocks dropped in premarket trade Friday, after data showing a surprise sharp decline in the construction of new homes in May. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF slipped 0.5%, but many individual homebuilder shares were hit a lot harder. Shares of Lennar Corp. lost 2.2%, D.R. Horton Inc. dropped 2.1%, Toll Brothers Inc. declined 1.5%, Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. shed 0.9% and PulteGroup Inc. gaive up 0.9%. Earlier, data showed that May housing starts fell 5.5% to an annual rate of 1.09 million, the lowest in eight months, while economists surveyed by MarketWatch had been expecting a 5.1% rise to 1.23 million. The homebuilder ETF has climbed 14% year to date through Thursday, while the S&P 500 has gained 8.7%.
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