USD rose on Friday against a basket of world currencies in its first five-day gain as it struggled to recover from a six-week low recorded earlier in the day, ahead of a slew of economic data from the US ahead of holidays Birthdays, perhaps the most important data for the growth of the US economy during the third quarter of this year.

USD index rose 0.25% to the level of 96.11 points, where the opening level of trading today at 95.87 points, and recorded the lowest level at 95.71 points.

The index ended yesterday’s trading down by 0.6%, the fourth consecutive daily loss, recording a six-week low of 95.62 points, under pressure from risk aversion and uncertainty about the future tightening of monetary policy in 2019.

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 2.50 percent on Wednesday, the fourth increase in US interest rates this year, in line with most of the financial market expectations.

The Federal Reserve said that the US economy grew at a strong pace and that the labor market continued to improve and hinted at the need for some gradual increases in interest rates in 2019.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the expected increase next year had not been caught, adding that there were circumstances that would be appropriate to bypass interest rate neutrality and other conditions that might prevent it.

The Federal Reserve’s monetary policy statement contradicted expectations by most experts, while retaining the essence of the plan to implement the interest rate hike in 2019, despite growing uncertainty about global economic growth.

Investors are looking ahead to many economic data from the US ahead of Christmas holidays next week, perhaps the most important data on US economic growth in the third quarter.

The final GDP forecast for the third quarter of 2018 is expected to grow by 3.5%, the previous reading was 3.5%, and the US economy grew by 4.2% in the second quarter.

At the same time, other data on durables demand is one of the most important indicators of measuring the levels of investment spending in the country, and investment spending represents more than 16% of the value of GDP.

Durable goods orders are expected to rise 1.6% in November from a 4.3% drop in October, excluding expected transportation items rising 0.3% from a 0.2% rise.

The Personal Spending Index for November is expected to rise by 0.3% from a 0.6% increase in October and the Personal Income Index expected to rise by 0.3% from a 0.5% rise the previous month.