The U.S. dollar gave up some ground against its major counterparts on Friday as other currencies recovered from lows, while the attention shifts to the Group of 20 talks in Shanghai, as investors hope for some kind of a coordinated policy to combat the global economic slowdown, but there doesn't seem to be any scope as of yet for such cooperation.

China's central bank president said that there's still a space for more monetary easily and stimulus measures, trying to reassure the local stock markets after a six-percent slump on Thursday, but Germany's central bank president on the other hand said that there should be structural reforms rather than more monetary easing, as the global central banks lose their ability to influence the economy after years of aggressive stimuli across the board.

The dollar index, which gauges the U.S. currency against an array of major peers, fell 0.30% to a four-day low at 97.16, edging away from a three-week high hit earlier in the week at 97.92, while the euro gained 0.40% versus its American rival to hover around 1.1061, but profits were limited however by expectations of more ECB easing in March.

Sterling climbed for the second day as well against the greenback to hover around 1.3993, up 0.21% on the day, and moving away from a dismal seven-year nadir touched on Wednesday at 1.3881 as fears grew over a possible British exit from the European Union after a referendum in June.

Safe-haven currencies fell however, as the global mood brightened a bit, with Japan's yen sliding 0.32% against the dollar to trade at 112.62, while similarly, the Swiss franc dipped 0.26% to 0.9877, inching closer to a week low hit on Wednesday at 0.9848. The franc has been mired below parity for an extended period of time now on extensive monetary easing in Europe and Switzerland.

Oil prices reversed course yesterday, jumping three percent at the end of session, while keeping most of the profits today, with Brent crude futures shedding just 20 cents, or 0.57% to trade at $35.09 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gave up seven cents, or 0.21% to hover around $33.00 a barrel.

Investors wait for a basket of U.S. data, with the Preliminary GDP growth reading for the fourth quarter expected to drop to 0.4% from the Advance reading of 0.7%, showing the extend of pressure on the American economy, which is negative for the dollar.

On the other hand, personal spending is forecast to have risen 0.3% m/m in January, compared to December's flat result, which would largely be a good sign for consumer spending in the current quarter and the greenback.