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Tuesday, August 4Tuesday, August 4
4 days · 4 summary articles
The U.S. dollar weakened sharply against the Japanese yen on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama confirmed both countries had intervened in currency markets. The dollar, which had traded above 163 yen last week, fell to nearly 155.20 yen early Monday after the announcement, settling at 156.70 yen by morning Eastern time .
Katayama stated in a public announcement that Japan’s finance ministry had purchased yen in coordination with the U.S. Treasury Department, adding, “We will not hesitate to conduct further joint intervention.” The move followed suspicions of market action late last week, when the dollar slipped below 160 yen .
German financial daily Handelsblatt reported that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent directed the sale of euros to buy yen, with rumors placing the intervention’s volume at nearly 50 billion euros . The Wall Street Journal noted Bessent’s role in supporting the yen but emphasized that the Bank of Japan would need to tighten monetary policy for lasting impact .
The yen’s prolonged weakness has frustrated Tokyo, as Japan’s heavy reliance on imports has driven up prices, compounded by high oil costs. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration faces pressure to address rising living costs, with earlier efforts to bolster the yen this year yielding little change .
The intervention marks the first major coordinated currency action since 2011, when G7 nations, including the U.S., supported the yen after Japan’s earthquake, according to Handelsblatt . Neil Newman, managing director at Astris Advisory Japan, called the public acknowledgment of the intervention rare .
Japan had already spent an estimated $59 billion in a late-week operation to purchase yen, as reported in established facts. The Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve maintained unchanged interest rates last week, sustaining the yield gap that has driven investors to sell yen for higher-return dollar assets.
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Op Wanpaku vecht de toekomst van het Japanse sumo
de morgen · about 3 hours ago
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handelsblatt · about 6 hours ago
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