Traders have been on watch for weeks for an intervention by Japanese officials to combat a sustained depreciation in the yen. "It has all the hallmarks of intervention," said Michael Brown, market analyst at Trader X in London, about the move, which saw the dollar break above the 150 level for the first time since October 2022, before quickly falling to a low of 147.30 as the yen surged. However, Colin Asher, senior economist at Mizuho in London, said the size of the move compared to prior interventions looked small.
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese authorities are always in close communication with U.S. counterparts on currencies and share a mutual understanding that excessive volatility is undesirable, Tokyo's top foreign exchange official said on Wednesday. Masato Kanda, vice minister of finance for international affairs, speaking to reporters at his office, was responding to the comments by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen a day earlier. Yellen said whether Washington would show understanding over another yen-buying intervention by Japan "depends on the details" of the situation.
Asian stocks joined a global sell-off Thursday on fresh worries the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates again, while China's economic woes continued to shred traders' nerves.The selling was intensified by worries about China as authorities struggle to revive a stuttering post-Covid recovery.