Two of the world’s biggest foreign holders of Treasurys ditched a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Japanese investors sold a record $61.9 billion of the securities in the three months ended Sept. 30, data from the U.S. Department of the Treasury showed on Monday. Funds in China offloaded $51.3 billion during the same period, the second biggest sum on record.
The return on Treasurys peaked at a 2½ year high in mid-September before the Republican Party gained control of both houses of Congress and the White House. The securities have since dropped almost 4% from that level on concern President-elect Donald Trump’s low-tax, high tariff policies will fuel inflation.