US euro sales for yen support rattled ECB after Japan intervention
What's new: Frankfurt was informed only after the trade, raising tensions over a rare US move to sell euros rather than dollars.
A coordinated US-Japan effort to support the yen is reshaping currency-market expectations after reports that Washington sold euros, not dollars, and informed the European Central Bank only after the trade. The intervention followed a 40-year low in the yen and marked the first joint US-Japan yen-buying operation since 1998. Analysts said the move signaled that foreign-exchange intervention is becoming more geopolitical, with Washington and Tokyo using financial firepower and political backing together to deter bets against the yen. Some ECB officials viewed the use of euros as a break with long-standing central-bank conventions. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama have also warned they could act again if needed.