Silver rebounds from two-week low, dollar inches up

Silver futures rose nearly one percent in American trade away from May 2 lows while the dollar index hovered near December 19, 2017 highs, following earlier data from the US, the world's largest economy. 

As of 06:26 GMT, silver futures due on July 15 rose 0.93% to $16.420 an ounce from the opening of $16.269, while the dollar index rose 0.07% to 93.29 from the opening of 93.22. 

Earlier US data showed housing starts fell 1.8% in April to an annualized 1.352 million units, compared to a 4.1% rise in March to 1.377 million, while analysts expected a 2.1% dip to 1.350 million. 

Building permits fell 3.7% to 1.287 million, compared to a 3.6% rise to 1.336 million in March, while analysts expected a 0.7% dip to 1.310 million. 

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic spoke earlier about the economic outlook at the Augusta Cotton Exchange, where he pointed to Fed's uncertainty on how will US companies respond to tax cuts, with most polls so far indicating corporations aren't changing their spending plans in 2018. 

Bostic said consumer spending is strong but still not at its peak, expressing otherwise his support for three rate hikes this year, while pointing to the 3.9% unemployment rate as extremely low. 

US industrial production rose 0.7% in April, same as March and beating expectations of a slowdown in growth to 0.6%. 

The Capacity Utilization Rate rose to 78% in April from 77.6% in March, missing forecasts of 78.4%.