Bessent’s ‘to do’ list: Buy US$5-10 billion worth of Japanese yen, Reuters photo shows

CAMP DAVID, Maryland – US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on July 31 exposed a “to-do” list during President Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting indicating he was contemplating US purchases of US$5 billion to US$10 billion worth of Japanese yen, a Reuters photograph taken during the meeting held at Camp David shows.

Taken over Bessent’s shoulder during an on-the-record portion of the meeting, the Camp David notepad bears the underscored words “To Do” followed by “Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil”.

The notepad shows no other words, and Bessent’s name card on the Camp David conference table is visible and positioned immediately above the notepad. The photograph was taken at 11:33 ET (11.33pm Singapore time).

A US Treasury spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the contents of the notepad, or whether the Treasury had intervened to help prop up the yen’s value against the dollar on July 31.

Earlier on the morning of July 31, around two hours before the photo was taken, Reuters reported that the Treasury had notified a number of banks that it may intervene in the yen market on the same day, quoting a source familiar with the situation.

Japanese authorities had stepped in to prop up the yen earlier on July 31 in Tokyo. That triggered a substantial strengthening of the Japanese currency during morning trading hours.

There appears to have been another sizeable strengthening of the yen against the dollar during the late afternoon on July 31. Data from LSEG shows the dollar dropped from about 158.9 yen at around 4.14pm to about 157.6 yen just before 5pm – a drop of about 0.8 per cent.

The US Treasury has not intervened to prop up the yen since 2011, when it joined other G7 countries in a coordinated action after a devastating earthquake and tsunami rocked Japan. REUTERS