Yen steadies amid 'weaker' Brexit threat and hints of currency intervention

Tokyo

TOKYO on Friday gave the clearest warning yet that it is ready to intervene in the currency markets if the yen continues climbing aggressively against other currencies ahead of the referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union.

Finance Minister Taro Aso said he was deeply concerned about the "one-sided, rapid and speculative" moves affecting the yen, and that the authorities would respond urgently to the situation if warranted.

That was read as a signal that Tokyo was ready to conduct yen-selling interventions, with the Bank of Japan (BOJ) acting as its agent, if the yen continued the steep climb it made this week, as investors increasingly regarded it as a…