US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent inadvertently revealed a proposal for the United States to buy $5bn-$10bn in Japanese yen when a scribbled "to do" list on his notepad was photographed by Reuters during a cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday.
The image, taken over Bessent's shoulder during a portion of the meeting open to journalists, showed a Camp David notepad with the underlined words "To Do" followed by "Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil". Bessent's name card on the conference table was visible, positioned immediately above the notepad.
Notepad visible on video
Reuters reported the photograph was taken at 11.33am local time. Video of the televised part of the meeting showed the notepad still clearly in front of Bessent when he spoke, to praise the president, 30 minutes later.
A Treasury spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the contents of the notepad, or on whether the Treasury had intervened to help prop up the yen's value against the dollar on Friday.
Possible intervention
The Financial Times later reported that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had sold euros to buy yen on behalf of the US Treasury department. The yen's depreciation, which last week dipped to its weakest level since 1986, has been driven by a number of factors including rising oil prices, according to Bloomberg News.
Earlier on Friday, about two hours before the note was seen, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed source, that the Treasury had notified a number of banks that it could intervene in the yen market that day. Japanese authorities had stepped in earlier in the day to prop up the yen, triggering a substantial strengthening of the Japanese currency during early trading hours.
Market moves
Another sizeable strengthening of the yen against the dollar appeared to occur late Friday afternoon. LSEG data shows the dollar dropped from about 158.9 yen at around 4.14pm ET to about 157.6 yen just before 5pm – a drop of about 0.8%.
The US Treasury has not intervened to support the yen since 2011, when it joined other G7 countries in coordinated action after a devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan.
