LONDON—A blast of suspected intervention by the Bank of Japan (BOJ) on Monday to boost the yen did little to tame the dollar, while the pound see-sawed as former finance minister Rishi Sunak emerged as the front-runner to be the next British prime minister.
The yen hit a low of 149.70 per dollar overnight before being swept to a high of 145.28 within minutes in a move that suggested the BOJ, acting for Japan’s Ministry of Finance (MOF), had stepped in for a second day. The yen was last at 149.37, down nearly 1.1 percent on the day against the greenback.
“The price action should be worrying for the MOF, as it suggests that there is strong demand to buy into dollar/yen dips,” said Sean Callow, a senior currency strategist at Westpac in Sydney….