A surge in Japan's ailing yen from 32-year lows later on Friday, amid reports of out-of-hours Bank of Japan intervention in New York, saw a peak-to-trough drop in dollar/yen of almost 4%.
There were wild swings again on Monday amid suspicion of further BoJ sales, even though officials refused to confirm the action.
A weekend of political twists from Beijing to London only added to edgy market on Monday.
China leadership China's Xi Jinping secured a precedent-breaking third leadership term on Sunday and introduced a top governing body stacked with loyalists.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (.HSI) has now underperformed MSCI's broadest global stock index by almost 50% over two years.