CURRENCY

G-7 to Stage Rare Intervention to Stabilize Japanese Yen

Hopes selling yen will stabilize runaway markets.

The Group of Seven, a coalition of the seven largest industrialized nations, agreed early Friday to a rare invention to restrain the yen, the Japanese currency that has been on a wild roller-coaster ride since last week's devastating earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis. The move—considered a surprise by many analysts, who thought the G-7 would simply tell Japan to handle the money crisis on its own—is a desperate attempt to calm the market, and the U.S. dollar immediately surged over a full yen after the announcement. Japan Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said the Bank of Japan began selling the yen at midnight GMT (8 p.m. EDT) and other central banks would intervene as soon as their markets open. The triple disasters that have hit Japan are unprecedented in a major developed country, and global manufacturing has already been affected.