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TOKYO, July 10 (Reuters) The dollar was narrowly mixed on Tuesday but remained under pressure on expectations that the Federal Reserve will leave interest rates steady for some time, while other central banks are seen raising rates further.

Activity was subdued as market participants awaited comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke later in the day for fresh clues about the future path of U.S. monetary policy. Bernanke will speak on inflation.

A surprisingly robust employment report for June late last week dashed some of the remaining expectations that the Fed would cut the funds rate from the current 5.25 percent later this year.

Still, the data was not enough to make market participants believe that the dollar's yield advantage against the euro will stop narrowing or that yield gaps between the dollar and higher-yielding currencies, such as sterling, will stop widening.

''Given the outlook that the Fed may not lift interest rates this year, there is no fundamental factor to support dollar buying against currencies, whose yields are expected to rise,'' said Tsutomu Soma, a senior manager at Okasan Securities.

The euro barely budged from the previous day's late New York trade at $1.3625 staying in a striking distance from an all-time high of $1.3683 hit in April.

The euro was well-supported after the European Central Bank last week encouraged market expectations that a rate rise in September is quite likely.

The single currency fell 0.1 percent on the day to 168.00 yen after striking a record high of 168.55 yen on electronic trading platform EBS the previous day.

The dollar stood at 123.30 yen easing from 123.40 yen in late U.S. trade.

The U.S. currency rose as high as 124.14 yen last month, the highest since December 2002, as the yen continued to suffer on the view that Japanese interest rates will stay low even if the Bank of Japan lifts its key rate to 0.75 percent from 0.50 percent, which the market expects will happen around August.

But investors were cautious about selling the yen aggressively ahead of the BOJ's two-day policy meeting starting the following session and comments from BOJ Governor Toshihiko Fukui at a post-meeting news conference on Thursday, traders said.

The Japanese central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates on hold at this week's meeting.

Reuters SBA VP0630