Dollar heads for best quarter in 6 years

The dollar was poised to finish the month with its biggest quarterly gain in six years, though it paused for breath on Tuesday and some analysts saw its recent rally running out of steam. The greenback has gained over 7 per cent against a basket of major currencies over the past three months and posted a record-breaking 11 weeks of successive gains on expectations that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates well ahead of its counterparts in Japan and the euro zone. Against the euro, the dollar hit a near two-year high of $1.2664 on trading platform EBS on Monday, but the shared currency was steady on Tuesday at $1.2692 as investors waited for euro zone consumer price inflation numbers due at 0900 GMT. The data is expected to show the inflation rate falling to 0.3 per cent in September from 0.4 per cent in August - well into the European Central Bank's ‘danger zone’ of below 1 per cent, and a far cry from its target of below, but close to, 2 per cent, according to Reuters.