The dollar is near an 8-month low against other peer currencies as gloomy U.S. corporate reports heightened recession fears and traders remain vigilant ahead of a slew of central bank meetings next week, Reuters writes.

The U.S. dollar index, which measures its exchange rate against a basket of six currencies, rose 0.1 percent to 101.65 after falling as low as 101.52 earlier in the session, having tested a low of 101.51 last week.

According to analysts at Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), due to rather gloomy reports and forecasts from U.S. companies, as well as a string of layoffs in the technology sector, a sharp economic slowdown is looming in the U.S. economy, causing investors to lower their expectations on how much more time the Federal Reserve will need to raise the interest rate.

“On the face of it, all signs are there that the U.S. economy may be slowing more substantially,” said economists at Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC).

And with the Fed no longer fighting for a rate hike and U.S. economic trends worsening, the U.S. dollar has entered a period of cyclical depreciation against most foreign currencies.

The Fed’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet next week and the market has priced in an interest rate hike of 25 basis points, a clear decline from the 50 and 75 basis point hikes last year. But before that, the Commerce Department is due to release the preliminary estimates of the US GDP for the fourth quarter.

As for other currencies, the pound sterling was little changed at $1.2400, while the euro fell 0.03% to $1.0911, although it remained close to its nine-month high of $1.0927 reached on Monday.

The Canadian dollar last traded at $1.3399 per $1 after the Bank of Canada raised its key interest rate to 4.5% on Wednesday. The Australian dollar rose 0.2% to $0.7117 amid heightened expectations that the Reserve Bank of Australia has more work to do to raise the interest rate after shock data released on Wednesday showed Australian inflation rose to a 33-year high last quarter. The New Zealand dollar rose 0.1% to $0.6486, having fallen 0.43% in the previous session, as New Zealand’s annualized fourth-quarter inflation came in below the central bank’s forecast.

The Japanese yen rose 0.2% to 129.32 per $1.