It’s a 100+ pip drop in about ten minutes. I wouldn’t consider this an actual intervention but it could be another case of Tokyo’s ‘price checks’. The pair actually fell to around 159.20 from 160.50 levels earlier in the day, before falling sharply now to test the waters below the 158.00 mark.
If it were about actual intervention, I think we would see a more sustained decline of 300-400 points rather than this kind of decline. Especially with some bounce back to around 158.40-50 amid some pushing and pulling.
USD/JPY 5-minute chart
As a reminder, “checking the price” is also part of the final call in the rules of the game in Tokyo before intervention. This has certainly been the case in past incidents even if there was no incident that followed the previous ‘price check’ earlier this year.
