* Yen falls to 3-week lows as long positions trimmed
* Pound/yen at 3-week highs, Aussie/yen at 1-year peak
* Aussie strong at 14-month highs on rate hike fever
* Euro hits fresh 14-mth high, kiwi touches new 15-mth high
By Kaori Kaneko
TOKYO, Oct 16 (Reuters) - The yen stayed under broad pressure on Friday as investors cut some of their long positions, while sterling approached its highest level in three weeks following upbeat central bank comments.
The yen struggled as short covering in the pound spilled over to other cross/yen pairs, easing to as far as 90.99 per dollar from 90.60 late on Thursday in New York where it lost over 1 percent.
The euro and high-yielding currencies such as the Australian and the New Zealand dollars hit new highs for the year against the dollar after positive U.S. data and encouraging corporate earnings prompted investors to further build long positions, dealers said.
The Aussie was also underpinned by an Australian newspaper report that central bank Governor Glenn Stevens agreed the Australian economy's strength could drive the Aussie to $1.10.
"An increasingly positive mood on the global economy has been supporting higher-yielding currencies. While the yen is not one of these currencies, it had been firming, and now we are seeing some correction," said Ayako Sera, market strategist at Sumitomo Trust & Banking.
Traders said the yen's decline was triggered by the rebound in the pound after Bank of England policymaker Paul Fisher said he felt more confident the bank's quantitative easing programme was working well (see).
Gains in the pound against the yen lifted other yen crosses and hedge funds continued buying them in early Asian trade, boosting the Aussie and the kiwi further to one-year highs against the Japanese currency, dealers said.
"The yen does look a bit glum now, especially on the crosses," Jonathan Cavenagh, currency strategist at Westpac.
"Offshore investments by Japanese investors are set to pick up, now that the fiscal half-year end is over and I suspect that after some good earnings numbers from the U.S., investors would want to put some money in the U.S."
The euro rose as high as 136.03 yen, its highest since August, before it trimmed gains to 135.49 yen, up 0.1 percent on the day.
Against the dollar, the euro rose as far as $1.4968 on trading platform EBS, its highest since August last year.
The Aussie broke past major resistance to trade at one-year highs of 84.20 yen.
Sterling hit fresh three-week highs of 148.74 yen in Asian trade, after having jumped nearly 5 yen in the previous session.
Investors were also growing more confident about a recovery in the U.S., keeping the yen on the defensive against the U.S. dollar.
The U.S. third-quarter earnings season has got off to a strong start, with Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Google Inc and IBM profits beating estimates.
Investors were also heartened by signs of stabilisation in the U.S. labour market. The number of workers filing new claims for jobless insurance unexpectedly fell last week to the lowest since January.
The better outlook is starting to feed into a view that U.S. rates could probably rise faster than those in Japan.
On Thursday, former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, now an economic adviser to President Barack Obama, said it was important to tighten monetary policy proactively, even if unemployment was high..
The dollar has fallen about 7 percent against a basket of major currencies so far in 2009, on expectations that U.S. interest rates will remain low and on talk that it is becoming the preferred funding currency, replacing the yen, for leveraged carry trades.
Top White House adviser Lawrence Summers said on Thursday that the Obama administration believed a strong dollar was in the best interest of the United States..
Meanwhile, the Australian dollar traded at fresh 14-month highs at $0.9271, buoyed also by mounting speculation of steep interest rate increases by the Reserve Bank of Australia before the year end.
The bank's governor said on Thursday holding rates at very low levels was no longer needed and he would not be timid in raising rates. He also signalled he was keeping a closer eye on prices.
The New Zealand dollar also jumped to $0.7496, its highest in 15 months. (Additional reporting by Anirban Nag in Sydney; Editing by Joseph Radford)