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Foreign investors’ stockpile of US government debt fell only modestly in April despite turbulence in the Treasury market driven by Donald Trump’s “liberation day” tariff announcement.
International holdings fell $36.1bn in April from the previous month to about $9tn, just shy of the record high hit in March, according to a report from the Treasury department on Wednesday.
Trump’s April 2 “liberation day” announcement of steep levies on trading partners ignited major market ructions, sending long-term US bond yields soaring. The move only partially reversed after the president paused the tariffs a week after he threatened to impose them.
The muted change in foreign holdings in April suggests the exodus of investors out of longer-dated Treasury bonds in April was driven more by domestic…
