Nomura Research discusses the latest wave of Japan's MoF yen-buying intervention.

"We yet don't know the amount of intervention from both sides, but we estimate the Japanese authorities provided approximately JPY14.1trn in intervention or $88bn from 30 July to 3 August, using the BOJ's daily data and local money market dealers' projections. This exceeds the amount of MOF intervention on 30 April, 4 May and 6 May, which was officially confirmed by the MOF as JPY11.7349trn. On these interventions in April-May, we found this daily intervention result somewhat surprising, as it did intervene on 4 May, as we believed that intervention did not occur on this day, based on price action on that day," Nomura notes.

"On the amount of US intervention, we were unable to confirm it from the US Treasury's weekly FX reserves data; however, reports from the FT and Nikkei strongly suggest the US likely conducted short EUR/JPY intervention. The US likely chose this pair to curb JPY weakness, as it did not want to convey a message to the market that could be inconsistent with its strong USD policy," Nomura adds.