U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell holds a news conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington on Wednesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 2, 2024
U.S. market swings reveal inflation uncertainty ahead of key data
Some may be less likely to take the Fed chair at his word this time around after a dovish pivot in December was followed by months of upside surprises.
An electronic screen in Tokyo displays the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and the graph showing its recent swings, on Thursday.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 2, 2024
Yen swings stir talk that Japan is in the FX market once again
The yen advanced more than 3% and hit ¥153.04 per dollar as more than $4 billion of yen-related futures were exchanged.
An analysis of the Bank of Japan's accounts suggests an intervention of about ¥5.5 trillion took place on Monday to prop up the yen.
BUSINESS / Markets
May 1, 2024
BOJ accounts suggest Japan intervened to support yen
The Bank of Japan said its current account will probably fall ¥7.56 trillion — much bigger than the drop of about ¥2.1 trillion estimated.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
The size and timing of the swing indicates that the government stepped in after the currency fell significantly.
Customers look at chocolate bars at Cacao Store, a specialist chocolate store, in Tokyo. Japan is a large market for high-value confectionery and it sources about 75% of its cocoa imports from Ghana.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024
Chocoholics in Japan set for sticker shock after cocoa price surge
Crop declines in top suppliers Ivory Coast and Ghana leave buyers struggling for beans and prices more than doubling since the start of the year.
Japan's vice minister of finance for international affairs, Masato Kanda, poses for a photograph during an interview at the Finance Ministry in Tokyo in January 2022.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 30, 2024
Japan forex authorities ready '24 hours,' top currency diplomat Kanda says
Masato Kanda again declined to comment on whether the Finance Ministry had intervened to prop up the yen a day earlier.
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 29, 2024
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
Japan's top currency official declined to comment on Monday, when asked if authorities in Tokyo had intervened in the currency market to prop up the yen.

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Rows of irises resemble a rice field at the Peter Walker-designed Toyota Municipal Museum of Art.
The 'outsiders' creating some of Japan's greenest spaces