FOREX-Dollar falls vs yen as jobless claims rise

* Yen rallies as stocks fall, recession worries grow

* US jobless claims spike, dollar gains vs high-yielders

* Stocks slide; US automakers a key pressure point

* For up-to-the-minute market news, click on FXNEWS

(Updates prices, adds U.S. data, changes byline, dateline)

By Steven C. Johnson

NEW YORK, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The dollar fell against the yen on Thursday but gained against high-yield currencies as stock markets plunged and a spike in U.S. jobless claims added to fears of a deepening global recession.

The Swiss franc CHF= also fell sharply after the Swiss National Bank unexpectedly slashed interest rates by a full percentage point, citing worsening economic conditions.

With anxiety about economic growth on the rise, investors continued yanking money out of risky assets such as stocks, commodities and high-yield currencies and parking it in U.S. government bonds or Japanese yen, which many borrowed cheaply to finance investments elsewhere.

These safe-haven flows pushed two-year U.S. Treasury yields to a record low and pushed the high-yielding New Zealand dollar NZD= to its lowest level against the greenback since 2003.

A report showing the number of Americans filing for first-time jobless benefits spiked to 542,000 last week, more than economists had expected, added to the unease [ID:nN20394100].

"Anxiety about the financial markets is shifting to anxiety about fundamentals and the real economy, and that's keeping the overall levels of risk aversion very high," said Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York.

"We've had disappointing U.S. economic data and we believe the bear market in equities will continue, lending more support to the dollar and yen."

The dollar was last down 0.9 percent at 95.01 yen JPY= while the euro fell 0.9 percent to 118.92 yen EURJPY=.

The euro was little changed against the dollar at $1.2514 EUR=, while sterling fell 0.7 percent to $1.4858 GBP=. Against the Swiss franc, the dollar rose 0.7 percent to $1.2200 CHF=, boosted by the SNB's surprise rate cut [ID:nLK597124].

Asian and European stocks fell sharply on Thursday and Wall Street pointed to a weaker opening a day after the S&P 500 Index fell to its lowest level since early 2003 .SPX.