By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Saikat Chatterjee

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) -The dollar gained against most major currencies as nagging concerns about the global economy forced investors to seek safety in the greenback ahead of the release of the Federal Reserve’s July meeting minutes later on Wednesday.

Sterling and the commodity-exposed Australian <AUD=D3> and New Zealand dollars all hovered near recent lows against the dollar as the broad market mood remained cautious.

“We have a lot of macro risks at the moment surrounding markets,” said Simon Harvey, senior FX market analyst at Monex Europe in London. “We have the risk of a slowing Chinese economy, rising Delta cases in the Asia-Pacific region, and slower growth generally.”

In the United States, U.S. housing starts dropped 7.0% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.534 million units last month.

The dollar index, though, was flat to slightly lower at 93.084, just below an early April high of 93.20 hit last week.

“The dollar’s move higher yesterday was quite aggressive and you saw key currencies like euro/dollar trade down to strong support levels and recent lows. So you would expect some sort of retracement that we’re seeing today,” Harvey said.

The euro was last little changed versus the dollar at $1.1712.

Against the yen, the dollar rose 0.2% to 109.805.

Even the New Zealand dollar, which briefly rose after the central bank set out a hawkish outlook for interest rates, swooned as a mild wave of risk aversion swept through markets.

The Kiwi was down 0.5% at $0.6888, having risen earlier to $0.6952 after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said it would keep rates at 0.25%, after the country was put into a snap COVID-19 lockdown.

The Fed is due to release the minutes of its July 27-28 meeting at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) and they are likely to provide an insight into the U.S. central bank’s debate over when to end its pandemic-era emergency programs.

A monthly fund manager survey by investment bank BoFA Securities, meanwhile, showed that investors flipped to a net overweight on the dollar for the first time in nearly a year.

That shift in positioning was evident in more high-frequency weekly data as well with hedge funds ramping up their net long bets on the greenback to the most since March 2020.

While the dollar failed to draw any sustained strength from Fed Chair’s Jerome Powell’s comments and mixed U.S. data, markets shifted focus towards the annual Jackson Hole symposium next week where some expect the Fed to signal a change in direction with regards to its asset purchase plans.

Elsewhere, the Canadian dollar hovered near a one-month low. It was last at $1.2622.[CAD/]

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin traded up 1.4% at $45,337, not far from Saturday’s three-month high of $48,190. Ether stood at $3,064 <ETH=BTSP>, up 1.7%.

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Currency bid prices at 10:28AM (1428 GMT)

Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid

Previous Change

Session

Dollar index 93.1480 93.1370 +0.03% 3.520% +93.1740 +93.0000

Euro/Dollar $1.1708 $1.1708 +0.01% -4.17% +$1.1730 +$1.1701

Dollar/Yen 109.8800 109.5900 +0.26% +6.34% +109.8850 +109.4800

Euro/Yen 128.66 128.28 +0.30% +1.37% +128.7600 +128.2300

Dollar/Swiss 0.9176 0.9150 +0.27% +3.71% +0.9177 +0.9128

Sterling/Dollar $1.3756 $1.3750 +0.05% +0.70% +$1.3770 +$1.3731

Dollar/Canadian 1.2626 1.2629 -0.01% -0.83% +1.2640 +1.2598

Aussie/Dollar $0.7236 $0.7256 -0.27% -5.93% +$0.7269 +$0.7236

Euro/Swiss 1.0742 1.0712 +0.28% -0.59% +1.0745 +1.0703

Euro/Sterling 0.8510 0.8522 -0.14% -4.79% +0.8533 +0.8507

NZ $0.6879 $0.6921 -0.60% -4.20% +$0.6951 +$0.6868

Dollar/Dollar

Dollar/Norway 8.9005 8.9105 -0.23% +3.53% +8.9265 +8.8875

Euro/Norway 10.4230 10.4352 -0.12% -0.42% +10.4548 +10.4104

Dollar/Sweden 8.7273 8.7564 -0.32% +6.48% +8.7645 +8.7121

Euro/Sweden 10.2200 10.2527 -0.32% +1.43% +10.2643 +10.2140

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York and Saikat Chatterjee in London; Editing by Alison Williams, Kirsten Donovan and Gareth Jones)