Bloomberg: Japan's yen fell another 1% vs the dollar Friday, after 3% Thursday, taking it to the strongest since early May from around 40-year weakness, after a combination of direct purchases of the yen, calls by officials to banks that trade the currency and jawboning from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama.

Bessent’s commitment to shoring up the yen was clearly shown when Reuters published a photograph of a notepad in front of him at a cabinet meeting in Camp David on Friday. Under a “To Do” title, it was written “Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil.” The Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday.

“The market had underestimated the authorities,” said Michiyoshi Kato, a senior adviser in the currency and rates client team at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank in Tokyo. “It has likely become more difficult for speculators to sell the yen. If there is another intervention, the dollar-yen exchange rate will likely fall below 155 yen.”

“Without backing from rate differentials, the impact of FX interventions is likely to be relatively short-lived,” Evercore ISI strategists Marco Casiraghi and Gang Lyu wrote Friday. “While flagging the exchange rate as a source of risk to inflation, the BOJ has so far refused to get pulled into a more active role in supporting the yen.”