Overview
- The United States and Japan carried out a coordinated yen-buying operation on July 31 to counter a sharp fall in the currency and limit spillovers to global markets.
- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Sen. Elizabeth Warren the transaction was an exchange of existing ESF foreign-currency assets and that Japan owes the United States nothing, rejecting claims it created a loan or direct taxpayer liability.
- Bessent declined to disclose how much yen the Treasury bought, the execution rate, or the current value of the position, though a Reuters photo of his notepad suggested a contemplated $5–10 billion range.
- Markets have only partly sustained the intervention’s gains as the yen weakened again toward the ¥160 level, leaving investors focused on Bank of Japan policy, Federal Reserve signals, and U.S. Treasury and bond moves.
- At the G20 in Asheville, Bessent plans to press peers to tighten isolation of Iran and said the U.S. will target another bank this week as part of the campaign, while Japan reported roughly ¥15.4 trillion (about $96.4–96.5 billion) in intervention outlays between July 30 and Aug. 26.