SINGAPORELONDON, Jan 26 Reuters The dollar fell to an eightmonth low against its peers on Thursday, as a gloomy U.S. corporate earnings season stoked recession fears ahead of a slew of central bank meetings next week

The euro squeezed its way to a new ninemonth high of 1.09295 and was last just below that level, little changed on the day. Sterling was up 0.15 to 1.2419, mounting a new bid on territory above 1.245 having failed to get there last week.

This meant the U.S. dollar index , which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, fell as low as 101.5, its lowest since the end of May.

Downbeat earnings and guidance from U.S. companies and a string of tech sector layoffs have deepened fears of an economic downturn in the United States, leading investors to pare back expectations on how much longer the Federal Reserve will need to aggressively raise interest rates.

There are now signs the U.S. economy may be slowing in a more meaningful manner, said economists at Wells Fargo.

With the Fed no longer leading the charge on interest rate hikes and U.S. economic trends set to worsen, we now believe the U.S. dollar has entered a period of cyclical depreciation against most foreign currencies.

The Fed39;s policysetting committee will begin a twoday meeting next week, and markets have priced in a 25basispoint bps interest rate hike, a step down from the central bank39;s 50 bps and 75 bps increases seen last year.

Ahead of that, the Commerce Department is due…