* Profit-taking lifts dollar against major currencies
* Euro pressured by weak euro-zone output data
* Market awaits two-day G8 finance ministers' meeting
(Updates, adds U.S. data, adds comment)
By Steven C. Johnson
NEW YORK, June 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar rose on Friday, rebounding from heavy selling this week, while data showing a plunge in euro zone industrial production highlighted economic weakness in the region and pushed the euro lower.
Other recent top performers, including sterling and the Canadian and Australian dollars, also fell as oil prices dipped and G8 finance ministers prepared to meet in Italy.
The dollar had spent most of the week under pressure as investors, betting on a global recovery, bought higher-yielding currencies and assets such as stocks and commodities, and traders said investors were largely taking profits on Friday.
"We're seeing a classic correction," said Brown Brothers Harriman currency strategist Meg Browne. "The top performers on the week are the worst performers today, suggesting the move is largely corrective in nature and will not be sustained."
The dollar was off its session highs by late morning in New York but remained firmer against major currencies. The euro last changed hands at $1.4029. down 0.5 percent but off a session low at $1.3935. Sterling was down 0.4 percent at $1.6502 after having moved above $1.66 on Thursday.
The dollar rose 0.7 percent at 98.20 yen and 1.4 percent against the Canadian dollar to C$1.1182.
Profit-taking on the euro accelerated after data showed industrial production in the 16-country euro zone plunged 21.6 percent in the year to April.
"I'm not surprised the figures are poor. The euro zone .... will suffer more than the rest of the world, ergo my view that the euro will underperform for quite some time," said Maurice Pomery, managing director at Strategic Alpha in London.
US OUTLOOK IMPROVING, G8 MEETING
U.S. data was more cheerful. A survey showed consumer sentiment hit a nine-month high in June and expectations for inflation rose.
Some analysts said that bolsters an argument, advanced by some currency traders, that the United States will be the first to exit recession, clearing the way for a stronger dollar.
"We're edging into an environment where markets will start picking winners and losers in the global recovery story," said Wells Fargo strategist Vassili Serebriakov. "We're not quite there yet, but there are hints of moving in that direction."
Inflation fears helped push the 10-year Treasury yield to 4 percent this week for the first time since October, and investors have debated whether higher bond yields reflected a strengthening U.S. economy or fears the United States may run into trouble financing a record $1.8 trillion budget deficit.
For now, though, strategists said policymakers are worried about dollar weakness. Exchange rates are not on the agenda at a two-day meeting of the Group of Eight finance ministers that starts on Friday, but analysts said they may come up in light of the dollar's recent slide, which has undermined euro-zone exports by making them more costly.
A French official told Reuters on Thursday that authorities were watching currency fluctuations closely. "What is damaging for the economy is the volatility of the currency markets."
Safe-haven demand boosted the dollar during the bleakest days of the financial crisis last year, but the euro rose 7 percent last month and is up 5.5 percent this quarter.
An index that measures the dollar against six major currencies .DXY> is down 6 percent in the second quarter, reversing a 5 percent rise in the first three months of 2009.
"We wouldn't be surprised if the weekend meeting concluded with the finance ministers singing the merits of a strong dollar, partly to shore up any lingering worries over demand for U.S. assets ... but also to provide (euro zone) economies some support," strategists at Calyon wrote in a research note. (Additional reporting by Tamawa Desai in London; Editing by Kenneth Barry)