The Australian and New Zealand dollars lost some ground against the euro and US dollar on Wednesday, but held near multi-year peaks against the yen on expectations the Bank of Japan will ease policy aggressively later this week. The euro climbed to two-month highs of A$1.2602 and two-week peaks of NZ$1.5800 on tentative signs of progress in the US fiscal talks.

The euro has now rallied 1 percent against the Aussie this week, having pierced the 61.8 percent retracement of the October-November move at A$1.2568. The New Zealand dollar slipped around 0.3 percent on the day to a session low of $0.8378, retreating further from a 15-month high of $0.8477 hit last week.

Copyright Reuters, 2012