US-Japan Team Up to Save the Yen & The Hugo Spritz, the New Drink of the Summer?

The US and Japan intervened in currency markets to prop up the yen, a rare move that has Wall Street buzzing about the real motivations. Meanwhile, a potential mega-merger in pharma has one set of shareholders cheering and another recoiling, and a new cocktail is threatening the Aperol spritz’s summer dominance. Plus, prediction markets for wildfires are drawing regulatory heat, and Palantir delivered a characteristically bombastic earnings report.

The Yen Intervention: Why the US Stepped In

The US and Japan jointly bought Japanese yen in what Bloomberg called one of the most dramatic interventions in global currency markets in decades. The yen had fallen to 161.4 against the dollar, its lowest level in four decades, driven by Japan’s super-low interest rates, heavy government spending, and high debt levels. A weaker yen makes imports more expensive and fuels inflation, particularly as energy costs have risen due to the war in Iran.

The surprise is that the US got involved at all. Such interventions are typically reserved for impending crises, which this wasn’t. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, a former currency trader who made nearly $1 billion betting against the yen in 2013, spearheaded the deal. He even telegraphed it at a cabinet meeting, where a photo showed his to-do list with a single item: “Buy Japanese Yen for about five to ten billion dollars.”