Reuters Photo Casts Shadow Over US Treasury Secretary

A Reuters photograph from a July 31 cabinet meeting at Camp David showed U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s notepad with a note indicating possible purchases of $5 billion to $10 billion of Japanese yen, Reuters reported.

Bessent exposed the "to-do" list during President Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting on Friday. The notepad bore the underscored words "To Do" followed by "Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil.".

The photograph was taken over Bessent’s shoulder during an on-the-record portion of the meeting at 11:33 ET, or 1533 GMT.

A U.S. Treasury spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment on the notepad or whether the Treasury had intervened on Friday to support the yen against the dollar. Reuters said it had reported about two hours before the photo was taken that the Treasury had notified several banks it may intervene in the yen market, citing a source familiar with the situation.

Japanese authorities had stepped in to support the yen earlier Friday in Tokyo, triggering substantial strengthening during morning trading. LSEG data cited by Reuters showed the dollar later fell from about 158.9 yen at around 4:14 p.m. to about 157.6 yen just before 5 p.m., a drop of about 0.8%.

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