During a cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s handwritten “to do” list became visible to photographers, revealing a note to “Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil”. The image, captured by a Reuters photographer at 11:33 a.m. local time, showed the notepad positioned directly in front of Bessent’s name card. The same notepad remained visible approximately 30 minutes later when Bessent spoke to praise the president during the televised portion of the meeting.
The treasury department did not immediately comment on the contents of the notepad or confirm whether the agency had taken steps to support the yen’s value against the dollar that day. The Financial Times subsequently reported that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York sold euros to purchase yen on behalf of the treasury department. Earlier on Friday, approximately two hours before the notepad became visible to photographers, the treasury department notified multiple banks that it might intervene in the yen market that day, according to an unnamed source cited by Reuters.
The Japanese yen has experienced significant depreciation recently, reaching its weakest level since 1986 last week, driven by factors including rising oil prices according to Bloomberg News. Japanese authorities moved to support the yen earlier on Friday, resulting in substantial gains for the currency during early trading hours. Additional strengthening of the yen against the dollar occurred during late afternoon trading, with data from LSEG showing the dollar fell from approximately 158.9 yen at 4:14 p.m. ET to about 157.6 yen shortly before 5 p.m., representing a decline of roughly 0.8%.
The US treasury has not intervened to support the yen since 2011, when it participated in a coordinated G7 action following an earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan.
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