U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant's Notebook Reveals Plans to Buy ¥5-10 Billion, Market Interprets as Possible Intentional Signal
U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant was photographed at the Davos meeting with a notebook stating "Buy ¥5-10 billion." Before the photo surfaced, the Treasury had notified several banks to consider intervention; subsequently, the yen quickly appreciated, with the USD/JPY falling from 158.9 to around 157.6.
The market interprets this move as a possible intentional signal to guide traders to buy yen in advance, thereby reducing the actual intervention costs and creating space for adjustments in the Bank of Japan's policies.
As a result of this event, expectations for official intervention in the foreign exchange market have increased, benefiting yen bulls while putting pressure on highly leveraged dollar bears.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Besant's notebook content aligns closely with the timeline of the Treasury's prior communication with banks, reinforcing the market's perception of coordinated intervention rather than merely a private memo.
In terms of resource mobilization, the intention is to guide private capital to buy in advance through public signals, aiming to achieve exchange rate targets with lower official funds while coordinating U.S.-Japan policy.
Similar strategies can be seen in historical cases of "verbal intervention + actual operation" combinations, with the current phase being the first joint direct purchase of yen support by the U.S. and Japan in nearly 30 years.
Essentially, this represents a transfer of pricing power: officials influence market pricing through expectation management, with the mechanism being that information disclosure itself becomes part of the intervention tool.
ABAB News · Law of Cognition
Photographed memos are often not accidental.
The cost of signaling is lower than actual monetary intervention.
Guiding funds in advance is the cheapest exchange rate tool.