Keeping Track ...

home building splinter

new home construction took a nosedive last month, letting some of the wind out of inflation concerns.

The Commerce Department said housing starts in April dropped 10.1 percent, the biggest drop since 1994, and much more than the expected 1.3 percent decline.

The report arrived on the same day as a Federal Reserve meeting to discuss interest rates. While the Fed did not bump rates higher, it did adopt what it termed a "bias" toward tightening - in other words, the Fed is concerned about inflation and will start looking for reasons to raise rates.