Midday trade in New York: Yen advances broadly

The yen advanced broadly on Friday on risk aversion by Japanese investors and expectations of repatriations by Japan's insurance companies as they sell foreign assets to pay for claims after a major earthquake rocked Japan. Midway through the New York session, the dollar fell 1.3 percent, its biggest one-day drop since December 3, trading at 81.89 yen on electronic trading platform EBS.
The low posted at 81.65 yen. The dollar touched a two-week high of 83.30 yen in the Asian session before falling back. The euro fell to its lowest in more than a week against the yen at 112.93 on EBS but then recovered to 113.34 yen on EBS, still down 0.9 percent on the day. The yen rallied 1.2 percent against the Canadian dollar, 1 percent against the Swiss franc and 1.5 percent against the pound, according to Reuters data.