* Solid demand at Irish, Spanish bond auctions helps euro
* Gains in U.S., European shares support high-yielders vs yen
* Yen's rise vs dollar takes breather
* Japanese exporter dlr offers seen at Y86.50-Y89.00 - trader
By Masayuki Kitano
TOKYO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The euro dipped against the dollar on Wednesday but its losses were limited after solid demand at Irish and Spanish bond auctions the previous day eased some jitters about heavily indebted euro zone countries.
The yen dipped against the dollar after U.S. shares rose and U.S. Treasury yields edged higher the previous day.
The Japanese currency, however, was still not far from a 15-year high of 84.72 yen to the dollar hit last week on trading platform EBS.
"The trend of dollar-selling looks unchanged," said a trader for a Japanese foreign exchange broker.
"The yen has been sold a bit but there was no major slide, suggesting that this was just a bit of a pullback move," the trader said, referring to the yen's decline on Tuesday.
The dollar edged up 0.2 percent against the yen from late U.S. trading on Tuesday to 85.64 yen.
The dollar's moves against the yen have recently had a high correlation with U.S.-Japanese government bond yield spreads, which have been narrowing.
A manager at a major Japanese bank said Japanese exporters were placing dollar offers from around 86.50 yen to 89.00 yen, having lowered their target levels for selling the dollar from around 90 yen previously.
The euro dipped 0.1 percent to $1.2870. The euro rose 0.4 percent the previous day according to Reuters data, helped by solid demand at Irish and Spanish debt auctions that also spurred a narrowing in peripheral euro zone bond yield spreads.
But Moody's Investors Service told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that it still had enough doubts about the outlook for Spain's public finances to keep the sovereign's triple A rating under review.
The euro could come under pressure again if the market's focus turns toward sovereign risks in the euro zone, said the trader for the Japanese foreign exchange broker.
Against the yen, the euro held steady at 110.18 yen.
Investors are watching whether the Bank of Japan or the government will take new steps to rein in the yen's export- sapping rise ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa expected next Monday.
Japanese authorities seem unlikely to resort to yen-selling intervention unless the yen's rise gains more steam, market players say.
The more likely response from Japanese authorities would be some form of monetary easing by the BOJ such as expanding the amount or the maturity of the BOJ's three-month fixed rate fund supplying operation, which the central bank decided to adopt last December after the dollar's drop below 85 yen in late November. (Additional reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Chris Gallagher)