As you’re no doubt aware, Japanese investors have been dumping US debt.
“Data from Japan’s Ministry of Finance confirmed this past week that Japanese investors sold around ¥1.3 trillion ($11.52 billion) in foreign bonds between Jan. 21 and Jan. 28, taking net sales for the past 12 weeks to more than ¥3.7 trillion, the largest amount since April 2014,” WSJ wrote “way” back in January.
Here’s a snapshot from last month broken down by investor type:
(Deutsche Bank)
Well, just moments ago, we got the latest data from the Japanese MoF and guess what? Via Bloomberg:
- Japanese investors sold a net 1.69t yen ($14.8b) of U.S. sovereign debt in January, a third month they have cut their holdings, according to data from the Asian nation’s finance ministry and central bank.
- That’s the longest streak of net sales since June 2013
- Sovereign debt includes bonds with original maturities of more than a year that are issued by govt, govt agencies and local govts
Meanwhile, we also got final Q4 GDP and balance of payments data out of Japan. Here’s the breakdown:
- JAPAN 4Q GDP ROSE 0.3% Q/Q; EST. 0.4%
- JAPAN JAN. CURRENT ACCOUNT 65.5B YEN; EST. 270.0B
- JAPAN 4Q GDP ROSE 1.2% ON ANNUALIZED BASIS; EST. 1.5%
Watch the yen and rates overnight.
3 months is a long streak? who doesnt want US debt?: anyone trying to keep their currency stable (not further down) relative to the US$, so as to avoid inflationary pressures while their economy is barely registering a pulse (what we call ‘growth’ in todays era of geritocracy)