After reporting a sharp pullback in new residential construction for the month of January, the Commerce Department released a report on Tuesday showing a modest move back to the upside for housing starts in the month of February. The report showed that housing starts edged up by 0.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 917,000 in February from the revised January estimate of 910,000. Economists had expected housing starts to climb to an annual rate of 915,000 from the 890,000 originally reported for the previous month. Building permits, an indicator of future housing demand, jumped 4.6 percent to an annual rate of 946,000 in February from the revised January rate of 904,000.