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The Australian and New Zealand dollars maintained two-day declines on concern Europe’s debt crisis is deepening, sapping demand for higher-yielding assets.

The so-called Aussie fell against 15 of its 16 major counterparts before European countries, including Germany, Greece, Spain and Italy, sell bonds next week. New Zealand’s dollar was set for a weekly advance against the majority of its most-traded peers before a U.S. report that economists say will show hiring increased last month in the world’s largest economy.

“A worsening of Europe’s debt problem accelerates risk aversion and therefore is a selling catalyst” for the Australian and New Zealand dollars, said Takuya Kawabata, a researcher in Tokyo at Gaitame.com Research Institute Ltd., a unit of Japan’s largest currency margin company.

Australia’s dollar dipped 0.1 percent to $1.0259 as of 2:08 p.m. in Sydney from the close in New York yesterday. It fetched 79.17 yen from 79.14. New Zealand’s currency was at 78.16 U.S. cents from 78.08 and bought 60.31 yen from 60.20.

Australian 10-year government notes declined, with yields rising two basis point, or 0.02 percentage point, to 3.81 percent. The two-year interest-rate swap in New Zealand was unchanged at 2.79 percent.

Germany will sell six-month bills on Jan. 9 and five-year notes on Jan. 11, while Greece will auction 1.25 billion euros ($1.6 billion) of bills on Jan. 10. Spain will offer bonds on Jan. 12 and Italy will sell debt that day and on Jan. 13.

French Auction
France’s offering of 10-year bonds yesterday drew the lowest demand since October 2009, as measured by the number of bids received (FRAB10BC) for each unit of debt sold. France’s credit outlook was lowered by Fitch Ratings on Dec. 16.

The euro fell for a seventh day yesterday, touching a record A$1.24461. Morgan Stanley recommends selling Europe’s common currency and buying the Australian dollar.

Rather than outflows from the euro seeking havens, “alternative investment destinations are likely to appear attractive, at least in the near term while investor sentiment remains buoyed,” Ian Stannard, head of European foreign- exchange strategy at Morgan Stanley, wrote in a report yesterday.

The Australian dollar has advanced 0.5 percent versus the U.S. currency in the past five days, set for a third weekly gain. The New Zealand dollar has risen 0.6 percent.

Payrolls in the U.S. climbed by 155,000 workers in December after rising 120,000 the previous month, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg News survey before Labor Department data today.

“The U.S. economy is recovering steadily,” said Kengo Suzuki, a foreign-exchange strategist in Tokyo at Mizuho Securities Co., a unit of Japan’s third-biggest listed bank by market value. “Any spreading of optimism about the global economy will result in buying of the Australian and New Zealand currencies.”