Dollar/yen declines on the nomination of a U.S. Treasury Secretary, but remains range-bound ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving.

【11/25Market Overview

In Tokyo time, the USD/JPY opened with a gap down in the early hours on Monday as President-elect Trump named Scott Bessent, who emphasizes fiscal discipline, as the next U.S. Treasury Secretary. With higher-than-usual after-hours U.S. bond yields10having fallen, the dollar/yen fell to153.54yen. However, after Bessent said in an interview that his priorities are “to implement Trump’s various tax cuts” and to “maintain the dollar's status as a world reserve currency,” the dollar/yen recovered to a high of154.51yen. In European trading, USD/JPY rose to154.71yen. Yet because Bessent is focused on fiscal discipline, concerns that fiscal deficits would rapidly widen under the Trump administration eased, and U.S. long-term yields fell sharply. As U.S. yields declined, there was dollar selling and yen buying, sending the pair briefly to153.62yen. NYtime, USD/JPY saw some short-covering, but with liquidity thin during the Thanksgiving week, there was no clear direction, closing in the mid-154s154yen area.