NEW YORK, Jan 3: The dollar climbed against the euro on Friday after a widely watched survey showed eurozone manufacturing activity plunging to a record low in December.

The euro fetched $1.3910 in New York late Friday compared with 1.3969 on Wednesday. The market was closed on Thursday for the New Year.

The dollar also rose to 91.79 yen from 90.63 late Wednesday.

Turnover was thin with many traders still on New Year holiday ahead of the weekend. The Tokyo market was closed Friday.

The euro started 2009 under heavy selling pressure, falling to 1.3839, the lowest level in two weeks, said John Rivera, currency analyst at Forex Capital Markets.

The single currency would pare the majority of it earlier losses reaching above 1.3950 despite the weak December manufacturing activity reported in the eurozone, he said.

The eurozone’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector, compiled by data and research group Markit, slipped to 33.9 points from 35.6 points in November, the lowest level in the survey’s 11-year history.

It was the seventh consecutive monthly fall in manufacturing activity and worse than expected as market participants surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting no change to the original estimate of 34.5 points.

Experts said increased trading turnover expected in the coming weeks could give greater indication of the strength of currencies.

Trading for the past few days has been spurred on little economic data as we were in the midst’s of the holiday season, said Kathy Lien at Global Forex Trading.

Now that it is back to business as usual, there will definitely be a multitude of reports that will iron out the true trend of equities and currencies, she said.

The British pound continued to drop against the dollar.

It fetched 1.4544 dollars late Friday in New York from 1.4613 dollars on Wednesday.

The greenback also rose to 1.0865 Swiss francs from 1.0669.—AFP