China May Have Turned to Another Old Tool to Help Bolster Yuan

The yuan spiked in opening trading Monday, in a hint that authorities may have taken another tool back out of the box to help stabilize the under-pressure currency.

The onshore yuan jumped as much as 0.5% to trade exactly at 7.2157 — the day’s reference rate for the managed currency — before falling back, according to official pricing data. Banks including state-owned ones sold dollars in thin liquidity resulting in the rapid rise and that selling ended after it reached the fixing level, according to two traders who asked not to be named as they are not authorized to speak publicly.