Foreigners Rebuff ‘Sell America’ and Buy a Net $1.6 Trillion in Assets

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(Bloomberg) — Foreign purchases of US financial assets accelerated in 2025, led by demand for stocks and US Treasuries, data on Wednesday showed — marking a sharp rebuttal of the “Sell America” narrative that’s become a regular feature of discussion among market participants.

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Overseas investors bought a net $1.55 trillion of long-term US financial assets in 2025, data released by the Treasury Department on Wednesday showed. That’s up from a net $1.18 trillion of purchases the previous year. Of that total, $658.5 billion went into equities and $442.7 billion to Treasury notes and bonds.

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President Donald Trump’s regular threats of steep tariff hikes — deployed for reasons ranging from economic to geopolitical to national security — have triggered concerns that investors abroad will abandon American markets and the dollar. Amid Trump’s pressure on Denmark over its island of Greenland, a Danish pension fund last month warned it was planning to exit its Treasuries position. Dutch fund Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, Europe’s biggest, dramatically scaled back its exposure last year.

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But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has regularly pushed back against the “sell America” rhetoric, arguing that the administration’s economic policies enhance the US’s position as the top destination for global capital.

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“Yes, there has been geopolitical instability as of late, and the sell-the-dollar trade has been popular as a result,” said Andrew Hazlett, a foreign-exchange trader at Monex Inc. But ultimately Treasuries make up a large share of sovereign debt holdings, he noted. “I don’t really see a world where that changes.”

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Dollar Role

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Dollar depreciation last year might have even encouraged some overseas managers to load up on US securities. Geoff Yu, senior macro strategist at BNY — one of the world’s largest custodians — said earlier this month that was what happened after the market gyrations spurred by Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement last April.

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“Our data show that cross-border investors took full advantage of the adjustment in dollar valuation to add to US equity exposure,” Yu wrote in a note last week. “Although allocations are not as strong as during the ‘US exceptionalism’ period from 2023 to 2024, the cross-border ‘premium’ remains intact.”

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The Treasury’s figures suggest many overseas managers were willing to add to positions in the US last year. Besides stocks and Treasuries, net purchases of corporate bonds totaled $327.8 billion last year. Securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other so-called agencies amounted to a net $112.9 billion.

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On a regional basis, Europe accounted for $872.8 billion of the net influx of money to long-term financial assets — defined as over one year. The Cayman Islands purchased a net $277.2 billion while Japan bought a net $56 billion. Canada totaled $84.4 billion.

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China Sells

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The Treasury cautions that it can be challenging to identify the ultimate origin of ownership, however. A number of the biggest net purchases came from locations known for their tax advantages, such as the Cayman Islands and Guernsey, and for their custodial roles in global finance, including the UK and Belgium.