SYDNEY, Dec 20 (Reuters) - The Australian and New Zealand dollars stood near five-month peaks on Wednesday as oil prices led commodities higher and a dovish outlook from the Bank of Japan delivered sharp gains on the yen.

The Aussie was up at $0.6760, having climbed 0.8% the previous session to its highest since late July at $0.6775. The next chart stop is $0.6821 and a double-top at $0.6895/6900.

The kiwi dollar reached $0.6270, after jumping almost 1% on Tuesday to within a whisker of resistance at $0.6274. The next major barrier is its July top of $0.6412.

Both had been boosted by yen selling on Tuesday after the BOJ offered no hint of an early end to its uber-easy policies, with the Aussie jumping 1.6% to 97.27.

Rising oil prices lifted the commodity-linked currencies as the threat to shipping in the Red Sea disrupted supplies.

Analysts at CBA noted this was one reason the Aussie had touched a six-month top on the euro.

"Continued shipping issues can lift oil prices and support AUD/EUR because of the Eurozone's high dependence on imported energy," CBA said in a note.

At home, the head of New Zealand's central bank acknowledged the surprising weakness of recent growth data, which had led some analysts to forecast earlier cuts to interest rates.

"We think the recent GDP release was significant: it showed momentum in the economy is grinding to a halt more rapidly than anticipated," economists at ASB wrote in a note.

"We have brought forward our forecast for the first rate cut to August 2024, six months earlier than our previous view."

Markets are fully priced for a cut as soon as May and imply around 81 basis points of easing for all of 2024.

Across the Tasman, futures are almost fully priced for an easing in June even though the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) was still wondering whether it needed to tighten again.

The market has 48 basis points of cuts pencilled in for all of next year, relatively modest compared to the 143 basis points of easing implied for the United States.

(Reporting by Wayne Cole; Editing by Sonali Paul)