The U.S. Department of Labor announced on Friday that non-farm payrolls decreased by 23,000 in July, significantly lower than market expectations of an 80,000 increase, while June data was also revised downwards. This rare negative figure noticeably cooled market expectations for the Federal Reserve's monetary policy path, leading to a weaker dollar.

Against this backdrop, shortly after the non-farm data was released, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama stated that Japan and the U.S. maintain close communication and will not hesitate to take intervention actions if necessary. He also revealed that he had reached a consensus with U.S. Treasury Secretary Besant that recent foreign exchange market fluctuations were driven by non-genuine demand. Affected by this, the Japanese yen quickly strengthened, with USD/JPY once falling by 1.1% to 156.68, before narrowing its decline to about 0.5%. Analysts pointed out that the yen's strength was mainly driven by the weak non-farm data, with expectations of a narrowing U.S.-Japan interest rate differential being the primary driver, while the risk of potential official intervention also supported market sentiment.