New home building in the U.S. skyrocketted by almost 17 per cent last month, however, this is after an almost equally sharp drop in November. Reasonably clement weather in the densely-populated U.S. northeast last week allowed for quite robust construction activity, providing softwood lumber sellers the opportunity to hold prices mostly flat. Sudden winterly weather hit the west coast, meanwhile, absolutely stopping transportation and major outside activity for two days. As usual, within a few days the rain started and melted a lot of the snow pretty fast.