The yen suddenly surged more than 3% against the dollar in late trading in New York, prompting market concerns that Japanese authorities may intervene after a long period of decline in the currency.JackpotvideopokerTo speculate.

The yen to the dollar from 157JackpotvideopokerAround .58 suddenly soared to 153.04, with yen-related futures changing hands in the last hour of trading of the day exceeding $4 billion. This is the highest number of contract transactions since Feb. 2, according to CME.

"in terms of price movements, this is similar to intervention," said Yusuke Miyairi, foreign exchange strategist at Nomura International.

An analysis of BoJ accounts found that Japanese authorities may have intervened in foreign exchange on Monday for the first time since 2022 to prop up the yen.

Its current account is likely to fall by 7.56 trillion yen ($48.2 billion) due to fiscal factors, including government bond issuance and tax payments, according to data released by the Bank of Japan on Tuesday. This is much larger than the drop of about 2.1 trillion yen estimated by private money brokers, implying that the size of the intervention is about 5.5 trillion yen.

The U.S. Treasury didn't respond to a request for comment.