Why Japan's $70 billion-plus intervention and a rate hike didn't prop up the yen more

IRAN-ISRAEL

Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama is increasingly finding herself in an unenviable position on the foreign-exchange front. After deploying over 11.7 trillion yen ($72.8 billion) in foreign reserves to prop up the currency from April to May and the Bank of Japan raising policy rates to a more than three-decade high, the yen still languishes at the 160 level against the dollar. Masahiko Loo, senior fixed income strategist at State Street Investment Management, said that the rate hike was