Before US Treasury Secretary Bezent publicly challenged traders and asked them to test their determination to push the yen stronger, hedge funds had already drastically cut short positions in yen. Data released by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday showed that in the week ending September 8, leveraged traders' bearish bets on the yen were cut in half. This change came shortly before Bezent made related remarks. At the time, Bezent spoke to traders at an event and welcomed them to bet in the opposite direction. He said that he had some information about the Bank of Japan and the yen policy and was a “bookmaker.” The yen rose 1.7% this week, continuing recent gains. As of 4:15 p.m. New York time on Friday, the USD/JPY report was around 153.68. Meanwhile, data shows that speculative foreign exchange traders, including asset managers and non-commercial traders, cut their bullish dollar bets for the sixth consecutive week in the week ending September 8, falling to 19.4 billion US dollars.

Before US Treasury Secretary Bezent publicly challenged traders and asked them to test their determination to push the yen stronger, hedge funds had already drastically cut short positions in yen. Data released by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday showed that in the week ending September 8, leveraged traders' bearish bets on the yen were cut in half. This change came shortly before Bezent made related remarks. At the time, Bezent spoke to traders at an event and welcomed them to bet in the opposite direction. He said that he had some information about the Bank of Japan and the yen policy and was a “bookmaker.” The yen rose 1.7% this week, continuing recent gains. As of 4:15 p.m. New York time on Friday, the USD/JPY report was around 153.68. Meanwhile, data shows that speculative foreign exchange traders, including asset managers and non-commercial traders, cut their bullish dollar bets for the sixth consecutive week in the week ending September 8, falling to 19.4 billion US dollars.