FOREX-Dollar pressured, high-yielders await China data

* Dollar index near two-month lows as USD longs cut

* Asia to eye Chinese data, weak numbers a risk for Aussie

By Anirban Nag

SYDNEY, July 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar was under pressure on Thursday, holding near two-month lows on a basket of currencies, although high-yielders like the Australian dollar were vulnerable to a sell-off if Chinese data disappointed.

A slew of Chinese data is due for release later in the Asian session. Data includes consumer inflation for the year to June, industrial product numbers, retail sales, investment data for June and second-quarter gross domestic product.

Any hint of a slowdown in China could see profit-taking in growth-linked currencies like the Australian and the New Zealand dollars , traders say.

Strong U.S. corporate earnings being released this week encouraged investors to seek higher-yielding currencies, and the euro, but have not helped the greenback which has been mired by concerns about a U.S. slowdown.

"A lot of the data I am looking at - things like real time port activity - has slowed materially and this should show up in industrial production today," Robert Rennie, chief currency strategist at Westpac wrote on the Reuters Dealing Room.

"I find it hard to believe that the Australian dollar should be doing well with very real signs of rising concern on U.S. data plus Chinese softening."

Currently, weak U.S. retail sales numbers for June and dovish Federal Reserve's minutes of its last meeting were prompting investors to cut long positions on the U.S. dollar. [ID:nWALEIE6D2]

In Asian trade, the dollar index was down at 83.36, holding just above support at around 83.15, the 38.2 percent retracement of the index's rise from a low of 74.17 in November 2009 to a high of 88.59 on June 8.

The greenback was broadly steady on the yen at 88.32 yen, having slid 0.5 percent on Wednesday. Traders in Tokyo said if the Chinese data came in weaker than expected, it could spark fresh demand for the Japanese currency and the yen could rise above the 88 per dollar level.

The yen usually gains when there is a spike in risk aversion and fears of a global slowdown drives investors to safe-haven assets.

The euro was steady at $1.2740, off a high of $1.2778 struck on Wednesday, its highest since early May. The euro pared some of its gains, although sentiment was holding up given recent successful bond auctions in Portugal, Germany and Greece. [ID:nATH005574]

Against the yen, the euro was steady at 112.49 , having shed 0.4 percent on Wednesday. The Aussie was lower on the yen, down 0.26 percent at 77.91 yen .

The Australian dollar was slightly lower at $0.8820, paring gains after hitting a fresh two-month high of $0.8871 on Tuesday. The NZ dollar was down 0.3 percent at $0.7212 after hitting a two-month high of $0.7254.

(Additional reporting by FX analyst Krishna Kumar in Sydney; Editing by )