Business and finance news from the Asia-Pacific.
The yen advanced sharply on Monday amid high alert in markets. This comes after Japan confirmed its first joint intervention with the US in currency markets in 15 years and warned that it was ready to act again, after the yen last week slid to a four-decade low. Japan’s Finance Ministry intervened in the market on Friday in coordination with the Treasury Department. US President Donald Trump earlier said the US joined the currency-market intervention as a sign of friendship with Japan, saying that he expects Washington to reap a financial benefit from helping the ally. Separately, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a post on X that the US stepped in to help fight “disorderly” movements in the yen and is ready to keep helping Japan. Bloomberg's Paul Allen and Haidi-Stroud Watts spoke to Louise Loo, Head of Asia Economics at Oxford Economics.
Amid US intervention with the yen in Japan, bond investors say the risk of a deeper Treasury rout is rising as Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh keeps investors in the dark about how officials will respond to the evolving economy. The Treasury market is signaling that Warsh's inflation-fighting credibility is eroding after he declined to outline how he plans to curb price pressures when policymakers left interest rates unchanged last week. The result is steeper borrowing costs for the government, homeowners and companies, with the rate on the 30-year Treasury at a 19-year high. Bloomberg's Paul Allen and Haidi-Stroud Watts spoke to Julia Wang, North Asia CIO for Nomura International Wealth Management.
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