By Swati Pandey and Charlotte Greenfield
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - The Australian dollar paused after advancing for two straight days to stand near one-month highs on Wednesday, aided by a rally in iron ore and coal prices and broad declines in the U.S. dollar after its strong gains over the last few months.
The Australian dollar AUD=D4 stood at $0.7361 after popping up to $0.7385, its highest since Dec. 14. It is up 2.1 percent in January so far, having earlier notched three consecutive months of declines.
The Aussie was helped by gains in iron ore and coking coal - the country's top export earners. Iron ore jumped 8 percent to its strongest in more than three weeks on Tuesday, with coking coal climbing nearly 8 percent. U.S. dollar was on the back foot against a basket of currencies as investors braced for Donald Trump's news conference later in the day - his first since winning the presidential election in November.
Since his upset victory, Wall Street has scaled record highs with U.S. debt yields soaring to levels unseen since 2015, and the dollar index hitting a 14-year peak on expectations that Trump's policies would stoke inflation.
Against that backdrop, financial markets are keen to see how Trump will follow through on campaign pledges.
Elsewhere, the Aussie stood near three-week highs against the euro EURAUD= and at a two-month peak on the pound GBPAUD= . It rose 0.6 percent against its antipodean neighbour to be near its highest in six weeks AUDNZD=R .
The New Zealand dollar NZD=D4 held at $0.6985, after touching a four-week high of $0.7048 on Tuesday. The Kiwi has gained 0.7 percent so far this month.
Data out on Wednesday showed job advertisements rose 18.8 percent in December from a year-ago, the strongest annual growth since late 2011. Job ads have now risen for 16 months in a row, underscoring a buoyant economy with strong demand for labour.
Still, analysts expect gains in both the Aussie and the Kiwi to be subdued on expectations the greenback would continue to rally over the long run.
New Zealand government bonds 0#NZTSY= gained, sending yields 2 basis points lower at the long end of the curve.
Australian government bond futures eased, with the three-year bond contract YTTc1 down 1 tick at 97.99. The 10-year contract YTCc1 slipped 1.5 ticks to 97.2350.