— gains on stock weakness, before Fed minutes

NEW YORK: The US dollar gained on Wednesday as stocks dipped, boosting demand for safe haven currencies, and before the Federal Reserve is due to release the minutes from its September meeting.

Stocks weakened a day after Wall Street’s strongest rally in seven months as investors were disappointed with IBM’s results and cautious ahead of the Fed minutes.

“The market once again is in a nervous mode, which is supporting safe haven currencies like the dollar,” said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions in Washington.

The dollar index gained 0.32 percent to 95.355, but held in the relatively tight range it has traded in for the past week.

“The dollar is trapped in a sideways range and we need more confirmation on the data front to push it higher from these levels,” said Bernd Berg, a global macro and foreign exchange strategist at Woodman Asset Management in Switzerland.

Investors are focused on the Fed’s meeting minutes for further clues over how many further rate increases are likely.

Some market analysts warned against buying into the dollar’s strength, however, saying that financial conditions appeared to be tightening globally.

Cross-currency basis swaps in euros, yen and sterling - money market gauges of offshore dollar liquidity - have widened in recent weeks, suggesting that the Fed’s rate hikes have cut into the availability of overseas dollars.

The British pound was the biggest loser against the dollar, after consumer price data for September came in at an annual rate of 2.4 percent versus forecasts of 2.6 percent.—Reuters