US dollar expected to maintain strength despite yen interventions, Reuters poll finds

Japan and the US just threw $36.58 billion at propping up the yen. The market’s response, according to nearly every currency strategist polled by Reuters: nice try, won’t work. A Reuters poll conducted from July 31 to August 5 found that the US dollar is expected to stay firm, with nearly 95% of roughly 60 FX strategists asserting that Japanese government interventions won’t provide a sustainable fix for the yen’s persistent weakness. That’s one of the most pessimistic readings on the yen since the poll started in the early 1990s. The intervention playbook and its limits Here’s what happened. The US and Japan executed a coordinated yen-buying intervention around July 31 to August 1, briefly dragging USD/JPY from nearly 164, a 40-year low for the yen, down to approximately 156.5-157. Japan’s total interventions in 2026 have now surpassed $100 billion. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed that the US stands ready to participate in further joint interventions to support the yen. The overwhelming consensus among strategists is that without a meaningful shift in monetary policy, specifically additional rate hikes from the Bank of Japan, the yen’s structural weakness will persis...