By Shinichi Saoshiro TOKYO (Reuters) - The dollar and the yen edged up on Thursday as short-term investors and Japanese exporters sold into a rally in the euro and higher-yielding currencies which followed a repeated pledge by the U.S. Fed to keep rates low for a while. With the Federal Reserve meeting out of the way, eyes were on rate decisions by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England later in the day, which along with U.S. jobs data on Friday were helping to keep a lid on big moves.. But the dollar and yen were expected to remain under pressure longer term following the Fed's pledge on low rates, a stance market players said was likely to fuel leveraged carry trades and boost demand for high-yielding currencies like the Australian and New Zealand dollars. "What we saw was a pick up of dollar and yen carry trades after the Fed's commitment to an easy policy, and the momentum is likely to remain," said a trader at a Japanese trust bank. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the dollar's value against a basket of currencies, inched up 0.1 percent to 75.865, pulling away from a low of 75.60 struck on Wednesday which was its weakest level in over a week. It hit a 14-month low of 74.94 in late October and has been holding in a downtrend since March. The euro dipped 0.2 percent to $1.4841, having added more than 1.0 percent on Wednesday. It has been in a correction since late October but Citi analysts said in a client note that as it had not dropped through its 55-day moving average after dipping to test it this week, the correction could be coming to an end. Against the yen the euro lost 0.4 percent to 134.26 yen after surging more than 1.4 percent in the previous session to its highest this week. Traders said the euro's surge drew selling interest from Japanese exporters, some of whom had lowered their selling targets in the wake of the yen's recent appreciation. The dollar fell 0.2 percent to 90.47 yen. Traders said there was talk exporters were ready to sell dollars at about 91.00 yen. Still, investors are expected to be wary of selling dollars too aggressively as the Fed appeared to be more confident about an economic recovery in its latest statement. "While this situation supports continued efforts at accommodation, credit easing is being capped off and officials are focusing more explicitly on conditions that would signal a retreat," said Robert DiClemente, chief U.S. economist at Citi. Traders have said this week that economic data could take on greater significance to the market as it tries to gauge when the Fed will change its tone, with jobs data on Friday in focus. But traders would also be watching equity market performance to gauge investors' appetite for risk ahead of year-end book closing and financial sector performance.

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