Japan's Aso: We are closely watching impact of US-China conflict

Japan is closely watching the impact of trade tensions between the US and China, Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said on Thursday. 

Trade tensions escalated last week after Trump said he would impose an additional 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports on Sept. 1. The resulting risk aversion in the financial markets put a strong bid under the Japanese Yen. 

Yen's surge did not go down well with Japanese officials. Aso warned on Friday against recent yen gains and highlighted the importance of exchange rate stability, 

The verbal intervention, however, failed to deter investors from buying Yen. This is evident from USD/JPY's drop to a seven-month low of 105.49 on Wednesday. As of writing, the pair is trading at 106.09.