The value of the yen fluctuated against the U.S. dollar Friday from a fresh 32-year low in the upper 151 range to the 146 zone as Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market again to prop up the sagging currency.
In New York, the yen was continuously sold against the dollar and briefly came to 151.94 in the morning. But it later advanced by more than 5 yen to 146.20.
The rapid swing in the U.S. market prompted speculation that Tokyo may have conducted another yen-buying, dollar-selling market intervention.
Japan's top currency diplomat Masato Kanda kept silent on whether Tokyo had made a fresh intervention like the one last month.
"I cannot comment on it," the vice finance minister for international affairs told reporters early Saturday in Tokyo.
The Japanese currency then weakened against the dollar to 147.74-84 at 5 p.m. in New York, compared with 150.47-49 late Friday afternoon in Tokyo.
Earlier Friday in London, the yen slid to the upper 151 zone against the dollar on the view that the U.S. Federal Reserve will continue with its aggressive interest rate hikes to tame rising inflation.
The yen last traded in the zone in July 1990, when Japan was in the final stages of its asset-inflated bubble economy.
Japan conducted a record 2.84 trillion yen ($19 billion) yen-buying, dollar-selling intervention on Sept. 22 to support its sagging currency whose value sank by more than 20 percent from the beginning of this year.
The depreciation of the yen against the dollar halted for a while after Japan's first such market intervention in 24 years, but the yen's value plummeted again recently.
The dollar drew buying as the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield maintained its upward tone after touching a new 14-year high on Thursday, following hawkish remarks from Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Patrick Harker.
Given the yen's continuing depreciation, the possibility of Japanese monetary authorities moving forward with another intervention has been closely watched. At the time of the intervention last month, the yen was trading at the 145.90 level.
The yen's decline reflects a widening interest rate gap between Japan and the United States, as the Bank of Japan's commitment to its ultraloose monetary policy contrasts with the Fed's tightening.
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