US dollar holds above 7-week low, despite Fed's decisions

The US dollar rose on Thursday against a basket of world currencies for the first time in 10 days to hold above a 7-week low, resisting negative pressures, especially from the Federal Reserve's decisions, which abandoned interest rate hikes this year, while trimming the holdings of treasury bonds , to counter the slow economic growth in the country.

Dollar index rose 0.4% to 95.69 points, with the opening of 95.31 points, and the lowest at 95.28 points.

Yesterday, the dollar lost 0.4%, the ninth daily loss in a row, among the longest daily losses since December 2017, hitting a seven-week low of 95.15 points as the US currency sell-off accelerated after the Federal Reserve's decisions.

After a two-day meeting, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy commission held steady interest rates on Wednesday, with little change at 2.50%, in line with most expectations in financial markets.

The MPC ruled out raising interest rates this year amid the country's expected economic slowdown, abandoning all previous plans to continue raising interest rates this year, in a sign that its three-year policy stabilization campaign turned to at its end.

The Federal Reserve said it would slow its monthly holdings of Treasuries from about $30 billion to $15 billion as of May, while ending a budget cut in September, as long as the economy develops according to expectations.

The US federal bank said the country's economic growth slowed in the first quarter of this year after strong growth in the fourth quarter of last year, slowing household spending growth, shrinking corporate investment and slowing inflation.

After Federal Reserve decisions, investors rushed to price US interest rates later this year, while 10-year Treasury yields fell to their lowest level since early 2018.