By Cecile Lefort and Charlotte Greenfield
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - The Australian and New Zealand dollars edged lower on Wednesday, but were still near recent highs, after disappointing Chinese trade data sent investors to safe-haven assets like the yen.
The Australian dollar AUD=D4 eased to $0.7418, from $0.7450 early and an eight-month high of $0.7486 touched on Monday. Support was found at $0.7390.
Further gains in iron ore, Australia's single biggest export earner, provided some support for the Aussie. The mineral has had an explosive 21 percent surge this week, the largest increase since the contract .IO62-CNI=SI started in 2008.
Domestic data did show a dip in Australian consumer sentiment in March, yet analysts viewed the result as solid given recent financial market volatility. the markets and commodity prices now rebounding, confidence will bounce back soon," said Kate Hickie, assistant economist, at Capital Economics.
The Aussie lost ground against a broadly stronger yen to 83.54 yen AUDJPY=R , having touched a one-month high of 85.00 on Monday. The New Zealand dollar fell to 75.84 yen NZDJPY=R to be down 2 percent so far this week.
Against the greenback, the New Zealand dollar NZD=D4 edged down to $0.6736, still smarting form news Fonterra was cutting its payout forecast to dairy farmers.
Investors are counting down to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's (RBNZ) decision on Thursday. The majority in a Reuters poll of 21 economists expect rates to stay at 2.5 percent, but see an easing by mid-year. the RBNZ decides to hold steady, dealers assume it will sound dovish in order to put downward pressure on the kiwi.
"The RBNZ has often mentioned its discomfort when trends in the kiwi's trade weighed index diverges from those of NZ's primary goods export, dairy," said Kim Martin, senior market strategist at BNZ. "In this context the Bank is likely uncomfortable with the current level of the NZ TWI."
New Zealand government bonds 0#NZTSY= gained, sending yields around 3 basis points lower along the curve.
Australian government bond futures were off multi-week lows, with the three-year bond contract YTTc1 down half a tick at 98.045. The 10-year contract YTCc1 rose 0.75 ticks to 97.4475, while the 20-year contract YXXc1 was up 5.25 ticks to 96.9525. (Editing by Shri Navaratnam)