EXCLUSIVE-Bessent's 'to do' list: buy $5-10 billion worth of Japanese yen, Reuters photo shows

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's notepad from a 2016 cabinet meeting at Camp David revealed a "to-do" list to buy $5-10 billion worth of Japanese yen.

​U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday ​exposed a "to-do" list during President Donald ‌Trump's cabinet ​meeting indicating he was contemplating U.S. purchases of $5 billion to $10 billion worth of Japanese yen, a Reuters photograph taken during the meeting held ‌at Camp David shows.

Taken over Bessent's shoulder during an on-the-record portion of the meeting, the Camp David notepad bears the underscored words "To Do" followed by "Buy Japanese Yen (JPY) $5-10 bil." The notepad shows no other words, and ‌Bessent's name card on the Camp David conference table is visible and positioned immediately above the ‌notepad. The photograph was taken at 11:33 ET (1533 GMT).

A U.S. Treasury spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the contents of the notepad, or whether the Treasury had intervened to help prop up the ⁠yen's value ​against the dollar on ⁠Friday. Earlier on Friday morning, around two hours before the photo was taken, Reuters reported that the Treasury had notified ⁠a number of banks that it may intervene in the yen market on Friday, quoting a source familiar with ​the situation.

Japanese authorities had stepped in to prop up the yen earlier on Friday in ⁠Tokyo. That triggered a substantial strengthening of the Japanese currency during morning trading hours. There appears to have been another sizeable ⁠strengthening ​of the yen against the dollar during the late afternoon on Friday. Data from LSEG shows the dollar dropped from about 158.9 yen at around 4:14 p.m. (2014 GMT) to about 157.6 ⁠yen just before 5 p.m. (2100 GMT) — a drop of about 0.8%.

The U.S. Treasury has not intervened to ⁠prop up the ⁠yen since 2011, when it joined other G7 countries in a coordinated action after a devastating earthquake and tsunami rocked Japan.