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LONDON, Dec 22 (Reuters) - The euro and the pound were on the defensive against the dollar on Tuesday as a new coronavirus strain spread across Britain, closing key trade routes and creating a supply-chain nightmare while time was running out to strike a post-Brexit trade deal.

The pressure on European assets, however, eased after a sell-off on Monday caused by shut-down of the border with France and angst over Brexit trade talks.

With European stock markets back in positive territory, sentiment improved on foreign exchange markets for Europe's top currencies.

At GMT, the euro was down % at $ and the pound was losing % at $, after falling as much as % the day before. Sterling was also down % at pence against the euro after heavy losses on Monday.

However, data showed Britain's economy recovered quicker than expected in the third quarter from its coronavirus crash.

Talks between the French and British governments to reopen their border continued, but trade talks between the European Union and the UK remained stalled, with disagreements over fishing rights the main obstacle.

The dollar index, which measures it against a basket of currencies, rose just % at after the U.S. Congress agreed the new stimulus package.

The dollar's timid gains come in a market that is positioned for a weaker dollar. It's pricing in a pandemic recovery that lifts commodity prices and benefits exporters and their currencies at the expense of the dollar.

The value of overall bets against the dollar eased last week, positioning data showed, but remains near nine-year highs struck in September.

But Britain crashing out of the EU without a trade deal and expectations that the new coronavirus could worsen the economic outlook of Europe might dent the consensus, said Marios Hadjikyriacos, an analyst at XM.

"If the Eurozone and Britain are forced to play the rolling shutdown game until the vaccines are fully deployed, then the popular narrative for a weaker dollar into may come under heavy fire as America heals its economic wounds faster", he told his clients in a note.

The Australian dollar fell % to $ The New Zealand dollar lost % to

The yuan, which has gained nearly 10% on the dollar since a March low, has been steady for about a week and was down just % at per dollar.

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The dollar gained against the safe-haven yen and Swiss franc on Wednesday, as risk appetite rose on reports of a possible treatment for the new coronavirus out of China that has gripped the world and caused major disruptions among global businesses.

The U.S. currency also benefited from a private-sector payrolls report for January that surpassed market expectations, suggesting the world's largest economy was on a stable growth path and interest rate cuts were off the table for now.

The focus, though, remained on the coronavirus, which has claimed lives, most in and around the locked-down central city of Wuhan, where the new virus emerged late last year. There have been two deaths outside mainland China: in the Philippines and Hong Kong, both following visits to Wuhan.

But the yen and Swiss franc fell after media reported a Chinese university had found a drug to treat people with the virus, while researchers in Britain had made a "significant breakthrough" in finding a vaccine. While the Chinese report was a day old and the British report indicated the research trials were in early stages, traders used the headlines to load up on risky assets.

"The market is starting to brush off the coronavirus," said Erik Nelson, currency strategist, at Wells Fargo Securities in New York. "What's driving this are some of the headlines on possible vaccines. So there is some optimism about having potentially a way to treat the symptoms from having the coronavirus."

Risk sentiment also improved after U.S. private-sector payrolls increased by , in January, according to the ADP National Employment Report, far above expectations of an increase of , jobs.

January's job gains were the largest since May In addition, U.S. services sector activity picked up last month, with industries reporting increases in new orders. The Institute for Supply Management's non-manufacturing activity index rose to last month, the highest level since August.

"The U.S. has shown quite a bit of resilience for a long time and to the extent that the global economy is going to turn the corner, that's good for the U.S.," said Wells Fargo's Nelson.

In afternoon trading, the dollar rose % against the yen to yen, after earlier rising to a two-week high of yen. It also rose % versus the Swiss franc to franc.

The euro, meanwhile, fell % to $, pushing the dollar index up % at

NEW YORK, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The Japanese yen hit a seven-week high against the U.S. dollar and was on track for its largest daily gain since May as investors nervous about the spread of the coronavirus in the United States piled into the safe-haven currency.

Hopes that the outbreak can be contained in China have been replaced this week by worries that infections are spreading around the globe. Measures to contain the virus have wreaked havoc on supply chains, the world's economy and financial markets.

Equity markets have tumbled, with the S&P on course for the worst performance in a week since the financial crisis, as investors dumped riskier assets and piled into safe-haven currencies. That sent the Japanese yen to a seven-week high of versus the dollar, last trading up %.

"The yen is significantly stronger from where it was even last week, when I was hearing people saying that the yen wasn't a safe-haven anymore. We're now back to appropriate levels," said Mark McCormick, global head of foreign exchange strategy at TD Securities.

McCormick said one additional factor supporting the yen could be the fact that Japan's public pension funds have been rebalancing assets.

"I think it's pretty clear that the (Japanese Government Pension Investment Fund) is trading ahead of the announcements of their weights, which if you think about what they've done over the past five years, they've created an allocation that leans much more towards global equities, global credit, global fixed income - which in this environment would see dollar-yen rally as they're pushing some of their flows outside of Japan."

Traders were also offloading currencies closely associated with a possible recession, pushing the Australian dollar, much reliant on China and global economic growth, % lower to $, its lowest in 11 years.

Apart from jumping into safe-haven assets, money managers also tend to reverse out of so-called carry trades in tumultuous times. In carry trades, investors borrow in low-yielding currencies like the euro - where interest rates are below zero - to invest in higher-yielding ones.

With investors pulling out of higher-yielding and riskier currencies, that has helped the euro soar to a /2-week high of $ It was last roughly flat at $

The U.S. dollar index was last down % to Against the pound the dollar was down % to

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