“Bessent ‘to-do’ list shows proposal for US to buy $5bn-$10bn of Japanese yen”

What actually happened

A Reuters photographer captured Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's notepad during a Camp David cabinet meeting, showing a "To Do" list with "Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil" written underneath. The photo emerged the same day the yen strengthened sharply and hours after Reuters reported Treasury had told banks it might intervene in the currency market.

Key facts

• Notepad reading "To Do" then "Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil" was photographed at 11.33am local time by a Reuters photographer.
• Reuters had reported roughly two hours earlier that Treasury notified several banks of possible yen intervention that day, per an unnamed source.
• The dollar fell from about 158.9 yen to about 157.6 yen (roughly 0.8%) in late-afternoon trading the same day.
• The Treasury has not intervened to prop up the yen since 2011, when it acted with G7 partners after Japan's earthquake and tsunami.
• The Financial Times later reported the New York Fed sold euros to buy yen on Treasury's behalf, and Bloomberg reported the intervention combined direct purchases, bank calls and official jawboning.

What to watch for

Watch for Treasury confirmation (or denial) of the note's contents, and for the actual size of any yen purchases once Fed or Treasury data surfaces. Also watch whether Bessent's history of leaving notes in photographer view, as with a May "resilience" note, gets scrutinised as deliberate signalling rather than a genuine leak.