* Yen down from Tuesday's 18-month high vs dollar
* Short-covering helps support dollar vs yen -analyst
* Near-term focus on U.S. economic data
By Masayuki Kitano
SINGAPORE, May 4 (Reuters) - The yen backed off from an 18-month high against the dollar on Wednesday, having lost some steam as position squaring set in after its sharp rally since last week.
The dollar held steady near 106.55 yen JPY= , having pulled up from Tuesday's low of 105.55 yen, the dollar's weakest level since October 2014.
Earlier on Wednesday, the dollar briefly climbed to as high as 107.45 yen in thin market liquidity, with Japanese markets closed on Wednesday and Thursday for public holidays.
The dollar could see some whippy trading against the yen over the next couple of days until Tokyo market players return from their holidays, said Satoshi Okagawa, senior global markets analyst for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in Singapore.
"We could see some pretty high volatility," Okagawa said, adding that the dollar's rise against the yen earlier on Wednesday was probably due to short-covering in the dollar.
Last week, the yen produced its biggest weekly gain since 2008 - more than 5 percent against the dollar - as the Bank of Japan held off from expanding its stimulus.
So far this year, the yen has risen nearly 13 percent against the dollar. Further gains would intensify speculation of Japanese yen-selling intervention sooner rather than later, as Japanese politicians have raised concerns about the yen's run-up.
Still, market participants harbour doubts as to whether Japan can intervene in the market given wider opposition to such moves globally.
In a report last week, the U.S. Treasury Department called current dollar-yen conditions "orderly" - widely interpreted as a signal to Japanese officials not to intervene to weaken the yen.
The euro edged up 0.1 percent to about $1.1506 EUR= . The euro had climbed to $1.1616 on Tuesday, its strongest level since August, as worries over tepid global growth returned and pushed investors to the safety of low-yielding, liquid currencies.
The Australian dollar nursed its losses following a sharp sell-off after the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates to a record low of 1.75 percent on Tuesday, when falls in oil prices also weighed on commodity-sensitive currencies.
The Aussie edged up 0.2 percent to $0.7502 AUD=D3 , after tumbling nearly 2.4 percent on Tuesday.
Later on Wednesday, investors will turn their focus to U.S. economic indicators such as a report on private employment and an industry report on the U.S. services sector. ECONUS
(Editing by Sam Holmes)