* Euro/dollar loses steam after dovish ECB policymaker comments
* Euro still poised to gain 0.5 pct on the week vs dollar
* Profit taking trims some of Aussie's jobs data-fuelled gains
* South Africa finance minister's shock exit keeps dogging rand
* China yuan hits 4-1/2-year low (Adds details, quotes)
By Shinichi Saoshiro
TOKYO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The dollar steadied on Friday, given some breathing space after a recent surge by the euro lost momentum in wake of dovish comments by a policymaker, while profit-taking trimmed some of the Australian dollar's big gains made on an unusually strong domestic jobs report.
The Aussie was down 0.5 percent at $0.7247 AUD=D4 after soaring more than 1 percent to a high of $0.7335 on Thursday after data showed Australia's jobless rate had hit a 19-month low in November.
The euro was little changed at $1.0936 EUR= after shedding about 0.7 percent overnight. It was forced back from a 1-month high of $1.1044 scaled midweek after ECB Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said Thursday the central bank stands ready to ease monetary policy further if required.
An overnight rebound on Wall Street, which ended a 3-day losing run, also slightly improved risk appetite and nudged up U.S. debt yields in favour of the dollar.
The common currency was still poised to end the week on a 0.5 percent gain, having soared after the ECB delivered a much tamer-than-expected monetary easing package late last week and disappointed euro bears.
The greenback may have suffered big losses against the euro this week but the seemingly inevitable divergence in U.S. and European monetary policy was expected to continue supporting the dollar in the longer term. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hike interest rates next week for the first time in nearly a decade.
Masafumi Yamamoto, chief currency strategist at Mizuho Securities in Tokyo, noted that whether investors continue to cover short positions in the euro when German bond yields have stopped rising is a key factor deciding if the common currency can sustain its recent gains.
"Unless a powerful dollar-bearish factor emerges, the euro's recent bounce is likely to peter out," he said.
The dollar was up 0.4 percent at 122.06 yen JPY= , putting further distance between a 1-month low of 121.075 plumbed earlier in the week. The dollar was still on track for a 1 percent weekly loss versus the yen. The safe-haven Japanese currency attracted bids this week as a slide in commodity prices bruised investor risk appetite.
Elsewhere, the South African rand fetched 15.3885 per dollar ZAR=D3 , struggling not too far from a fresh record low of 15.4895 hit overnight. Investors have dumped the rand, their confidence rattled when South African finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, known as a fiscal conservative, was sacked on Wednesday. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N13Z0BW
Nene's dismissal comes after rating agency Fitch last week downgraded South Africa to BBB-, a notch above "junk" status, citing a further weakening in economic performance and potential. Fitch said Thursday that Nene's exit raises "fiscal policy questions."
"It is difficult to imagine the rand bottoming out anytime soon, but I don't think its decline will strongly impact emerging market currencies in general," said Masashi Murata, senior currency strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman in Tokyo.
Lower oil prices kept other commodity-linked currencies on the defensive. The Canadian dollar touched a new 11-1/2-year low of C$1.3654 to the greenback.
Norway's crown fared a little better. The Norwegian currency fetched 9.47 crowns per euro, with data overnight showing a rise in inflation helping it move away from a 10-week trough of around 9.60 struck earlier this week.
China's yuan hit a 4-1/2-year low of 6.4515 to the dollar. Markets have been rife with speculation that Beijing would allow the yuan to depreciate after the currency's inclusion into the IMF's Special Drawing Rights basket.