* Euro near 5-mo high vs dlr, dollar index hits 6-month low
* Japan on holiday but fear of intervention caps yen
* NZ dollar slides after unexpectedly weak GDP report
By Tamawa Desai
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) - The dollar steadied on Thursday after sharp selling the previous day when the U.S. Federal Reserve hinted at more easing, pushing Treasury yields down and keeping the greenback pinned near a five-month low on the euro.
Market players sold dollars as they positioned for more U.S. quantitative easing later this year.
"The Fed has moved to an easing bias, and the euro has become the anti-dollar," said Lee Hardman, currency economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.
By 0746 GMT, the euro dipped 0.2 percent to $1.3360 on selling by Asian accounts, traders said, after gaining more than 1 percent on Wednesday, climbing to $1.3441 on trading platform EBS.
A survey of purchasing managers showing growth in Germany's private sector slowed sharply in September also hit the euro.
Bids were seen near $1.3300-1.3325, supporting the downside, traders said. The next target is $1.3510, the 50 percent retracement of its fall from $1.5145 last November to its June low of $1.1876.
The dollar index steadied at 79.934 after hitting a six-month trough of 79.560 on Wednesday. Some chartists see a move down to last December's interim peak at about 78.45.
"Lower U.S. yields are suggesting that the dollar is heading lower overall," said Andrew Robinson, FX market strategist at Saxo Bank in Singapore.
Two-year Treasury yields hit all-time lows of 0.407 percent on Wednesday.
YEN GAINS LIMITED
The euro hovered near its highest in more than a month against the yen, hit on Wednesday at 113.53 yen.
Against the yen, the dollar rose 0.1 percent at 84.61 yen after falling to 84.27 yen, its weakest since Tokyo intervened in the currency market last week. Markets in Tokyo were closed on Thursday for a national holiday.
"The yen would be a lot stronger if not for intervention and the threat of intervention. The drop in short-term U.S. yields is more consistent with 80 yen rather than 85 yen," BTM-UFJ's Hardman said, adding he expected Tokyo to come into the market again at around 82-83 yen.
The dollar had fallen to a 15-year low of 82.87 yen before Tokyo intervened in the currency market for the first time in six years on Sept. 15.
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan will meet U.S. President Barack Obama later on Thursday for the first time since Japan took action in the currency market.
Obama is also set to meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who pushed back against pressure to revalue the yuan as U.S. lawmakers threatened to penalise China.
Chinese markets were closed on Wednesday. The yuan extended a rally on Tuesday to nine days, rising the most in that period since January 2008.
In holiday-thinned Asian trade, the New Zealand dollar fell as data showed the country's economy grew just 0.2 percent last quarter, far below expectations.
The kiwi fell 0.8 percent, backing off the previous day's eight-month high on the greenback, and slid to its lowest in five months against the Australian dollar.
(Additional reporting by Charlotte Cooper in Tokyo)