U.S., Japan Said to Conduct First Joint Yen-Support Operation in Nearly 30 Years

Huo Xing Finance reported that a photograph taken during the media-access portion of a Friday cabinet meeting at Camp David under the Trump administration appeared to show U.S. Treasury Secretary Bentsen's notebook with a to-do item reading "Buy JPY $5–10 billion." The image was captured at 11:33 a.m. Eastern Time (11:33 p.m. Beijing time), with Bentsen's name tag visible above the notebook. A U.S. Treasury spokesperson did not respond to inquiries about the note or whether any market intervention occurred on Friday. The Financial Times reported that the Treasury intervened in the yen market on Friday local time, in what would be the first coordinated, direct yen-support purchase by the U.S. and Japan in nearly three decades. Three people familiar with the matter said the New York Fed, acting on the Treasury's behalf, carried out an atypical operation by selling euros to buy yen. Two of the sources said the trades were executed via Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The report added that, ahead of the move, the Treasury had informed several Wall Street banks it was considering intervening in the yen market. The Treasury's last intervention related to the yen was in 2011, though that operation involved selling yen.