Bloomberg: A Foreign Threat to US Treasuries That Dwarfs Fed’s Debt Hoard

Foreigner investors own more than 40 percent of the $13.9 trillion US securities, and options for investing in public debt are expanding, report Liz McCormick and Brian Chappatta for Bloomberg. This comes at a time when the US Federal Reserve is reducing crisis-era investments in US bonds and the Trump administration plans to launch an infrastructure-spending program. “In overseas markets, more than $3 trillion of negative-yielding government bonds -- which all but guarantee losses for buy-and-hold investors -- have turned positive in recent months," McCormick and Brian Chappatta note. "And analysts say that number may grow over the next few years as brighter economic prospects and shifts in monetary policy lift trillions more out of sub-zero levels in Europe and Japan.” Fluctuation in the value of the US dollar is another complication for foreign investors, and some investors could turn to options close to home. Japan, China, Ireland, Brazil, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland combined hold about half of all foreign-held US securities. – YaleGlobal

Bloomberg: A Foreign Threat to US Treasuries That Dwarfs Fed's Debt Hoard

Foreign investors hold 43 percent of the $13.9 trillion US treasury securities, but could soon curtail purchases in favor of better deals closer to home
Liz McCormick and Brian Chappatta
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
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