A photographer snapped a photo over Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's shoulder that revealed a plan hours before a notable currency jump.
During a Trump Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday, Reuters news photographer Daniel Heuer captured Bessent's jottings on a notepad in front of him. At the top, the note read, "To Do," and underneath that, Bessent had written, "Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil."
According to reporting by Reuters, the Treasury had already put banks on alert for a possible U.S. intervention in the market for Japan's currency when Heuer took the photo.
The Financial Times later reported that a "historic" intervention by the Treasury actually happened. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York sold euros to buy yen on behalf of the Treasury, according to The Financial Times.
The dollar fell from about 158.9 yen to about 157.6 yen just before 5 p.m., as the yen strengthened about .8 percent, according to Reuters. A Treasury spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the contents of the note or whether the Treasury had intervened to prop up the yen's value against the dollar on Friday.
According to reporting by Bloomberg News, the yen dipped last week to its weakest level since 1986 because of rising oil prices and a number of other factors.
Reuters noted that the Treasury hasn't intervened to affect the yen since 2011, when it coordinated with other G7 countries to help Japan recover after a major earthquake.
Bessent's Cabinet meeting jottings have been captured by a Reuters photographer before. In late May, Reuters photographer Evan Vucci caught scribblings by Bessent that read "resilience" on the top and bottom and "prosperity" alongside it, though it's unclear why.
During a White House press briefing the next day, Daily Mail reporter Elina Shirazi asked why he had written "resilience" multiple times. Bessent laughed and said, "So people could look over my shoulder, photograph them, and think they got a scoop."
