By Deborah Levine, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The dollar gained ground for the first session in seven Monday, rising before the Institute of Supply Management’s index on U.S. manufacturing is projected to show an improvement for December.
The dollar index (DXY 79.20, +0.17, +0.22%) , which measures the currency against a basket of six rivals, rose to 79.149, up from 79.02 on Dec. 31.
Still, analysts noted very thin trading as several key global markets, including Japan and the U.K., remain shuttered.
The euro (EURUSD 1.3341, -0.0008, -0.0599%) slipped to $1.3519 from $1.3369 in late North American trading on Friday.
The dollar (USDYEN 81.5100, +0.3200, +0.3941%) also rose to 81.44 Japanese yen, up from ¥81.24 Friday.
The ISM index focused on activity in the manufacturing sector will be released at 10 a.m. Eastern time.
Currency traders also will look to several sovereign-debt auctions this week to gauge how worried investors continue to be about the fiscal problems spreading throughout Europe, said Marc Chandler, global head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman.
More than $80 billion in sovereign and bank notes will be sold this year, starting with a bill sale in France on Monday, he said.
“The market may be more sensitive to the Portugal bill auction on Wednesday and the German and French bonds sales Wednesday and Thursday,” he said.
In the last session of 2010, the dollar index slid, thought it posted a 1.5% gain for the year. That was mostly on the back of a weak euro, with sovereign-debt worries weighing on the single currency.
The euro lost 6.5% against the greenback last year. However, the dollar lost 12.9% against the yen and touched the lowest level since 1995. Read more on dollar’s performance in 2010.
