Foreigners held $9.271 trillion worth of U.S. federal debt in 4Q2025

 The corresponding figure for China at the end of 2025 was . . . $0.85 trillion.

🤣 

Total external debt of China was $2.328 trillion.

Total external debt of the United States was $29.448 trillion.

America is where it's at, Jack. 

 

 

The total value of all foreign-owned U.S. Treasury securities is up 3.25% year over year in March 2026, and CNBC says Japan and China retreat from owning them

The big retreat was actually in the BRICS. 

The value of Japanese-owned UST is up 5.4% year over year in March, lol.

Meanwhile the value of official China-owned is down 14.8% yoy, but China notoriously owns UST through stealth mechanisms, often in the UK and Belgium where ownership is up 19% and 12.9% yoy respectively.

Hard to say what's going on there with the most trusted name in nothing.

Month over month in March 2026 the total value of all foreign-owned is barely down 1.5%, which is neither unusual nor indicative of much of anything. 

On a year over year basis, there were just five net "sellers" among the major foreign holders: China, Taiwan, Switzerland, India (down nearly 24%!), and Brazil (down 19%!). 

Officially anyway, BRIC of the BRICS raising hard currency for some reason lol oil.

Japan, China lead foreign government retreat from U.S. Treasurys as Gulf War stokes currency fears

Drudge is running propaganda for the Chicom bond market now

 

Chinese govt bonds emerge as lone haven...

 

https://en.people.cn/n3/2026/0327/c90000-20440521.html

... "By allocating to RMB bonds, foreign investors can reduce portfolio volatility and improve risk-adjusted returns." ... "In the face of frequent geopolitical risks, the safe-haven role of RMB bonds has emerged," Yu said, adding that as the RMB internationalization progresses, demand for RMB assets as reserves is growing, and this is expected to support the growth of RMB bonds holdings by central banks and sovereign wealth funds.                                                                                        

LOL, what a crock.

Foreign investors own less than $1 trillion of Chinese debt, compared with over $9 trillion of U.S. debt.

... [U.S.] Treasuries are relied upon by global central banks as the pre-eminent reserve asset, since the $30tn market for the securities is the biggest and deepest in the world. ...

More. 

 

U.S. Federal Debt continues to be a very popular investment with foreigners who owned $9.2484 trillion of it at the end of 3Q2025

As of early 2026, the average interest rate paid on all outstanding U.S. federal debt is about 3.35%.

This rate represents a significant increase from the roughly 1.5% average seen in early 2022.

The chart was updated on Mar 4, 2026.

The $9.248 trillion owned by foreigners in 3Q2025 was about 24.5% of the total public debt outstanding at the time. 

The latest data available from the U.S. Department of the Treasury indicates that in Dec 2025 foreigners owned $9.2709 trillion.

  

 

Gold bug Peter Schiff's problem is that gold represented at best only about 18% of the value of total global international reserves, and that was yesterday before gold started this price plunge

"The dollar is going to collapse", he said.

"The dollar is going to be replaced by gold", he said.

Central banks "are getting rid of dollars", he said.

"They're getting rid of treasuries", he said.

None of that is true.

The nominal broad dollar index remains relatively strong. 

Even foreign official ownership of treasuries is up slightly year over year, shifting slightly from long dated securities to short, while total foreign ownership is up solidly. 

Meanwhile fiat currencies represented about 78% of the value of total global international reserves yesterday. The U.S. Dollar alone represented about 55% of the value, followed by the Euro close to 20%.

Gold is not going to replace the dollar.

But Peter will be happy to sell you some, especially today lol. 

 

Stories like this about China destroying the U.S. Dollar just make me want to howl

But hey, what do you expect from MarketWatch?

China quietly destroying the dollar...

... As more commodities get priced in yuan instead of dollars, demand for dollars softens. As central banks diversify into gold, they buy fewer Treasurys. As fewer foreigners buy U.S. debt, interest rates drift higher. As the dollar’s purchasing power erodes, everything you import costs more. ...

This, like most of the story, is a load of BS.

Global demand for U.S. debt is at an ALL TIME HIGH, a record $9.2 trillion in the last three months through October.

You'll know the yuan has replaced the dollar when the world buys Chinese sovereign debt instead of ours. And right now the world owns less than $300 billion of Chinese sovereign debt, billion with a B, not trillion with a T.

Nobody trusts China like they trust us. 

The writer, who owns gold and silver, wants you to dump long term bonds and buy short term bills and . . . gold and silver. Gee, what a coincidence. 

Meanwhile foreign governments continue to prefer long term U.S. Treasuries and own relatively few bills.

And the dollar is relatively strong, not weak as the writer says, in November 2025. 

click to enlarge

 

Here's the latest chart for grand total foreign holdings of US Treasury securities 2000-2025

 I don't remember why I started doing this chart in May of whenever it was, but I stuck with it over the years.

It was probably some nutball during the Great Financial Crisis screaming that foreigners were dumping U. S. Treasury securities and we were all doomed!

The nutballs have been saying that for a loooooooooooooong time.

 

These are the raw, as-reported numbers at the time, and do not incorporate any subsequent revisions.

In May 2025, 43% of the over $9 trillion in outstanding value for foreign held UST was "Official", that is, by governments. And 89.8% of that 43% is invested in longer term Notes and Bonds.

Year over year in May the value of what is owned by foreigners is up a whopping 11.25%. 

Many people in addition to governments around the world are banking on the full faith and credit of the United States because they can't really bank on their own governments.

And that's a fact, Jack. 

Update:

And, of course, there's a government chart of this, updated quarterly. 

 

 

It's driving the Reuters writer of this story at CNBC crazy that US Treasury securities aren't selling off lol

Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries top $9 trillion in March, data shows

 ... Holdings of U.S. Treasuries surged to $9.05 trillion in March, an all-time peak and up more than $233 billion from $8.81 trillion in February. Compared with a year earlier, Treasuries owned by foreigners rose nearly 12%.

Some analysts said that trend could change in April as the Trump administration introduced a massive trade shock on April 2nd that saw effective tariff rates surge, particularly on Chinese goods.

That fueled a U.S. Treasuries sell-off that, at one point, pushed benchmark 10-year yields more than 70 basis points (bps) higher to nearly 4.6% over the April 3-11 period. The selloff may have included selling from foreign investors, analysts said.

Trump has since paused the imposition of tariffs for 90 days, and the Treasuries market has stabilized somewhat, although foreign investors are likely to have remained leery of U.S. assets. ...

Yeah, I don't think so.

10Y yield averaged 4.28 in April lol, unchanged from March lololol.

LOL: The value of US Treasury securities held by foreigners soared to $8.8172 trillion in February 2025, up $817.9 billion year over year, or 10.2%

 Oh, but the sky is falling, the 10Y's going to the moon, everyone's dumping their bonds, the dollar will stop being the reserve currency, yada yada yada, blah blah blah.

 

click to enlarge

 

The value of US Treasury securities held by foreigners made another new record high in July 2024

 $8.3385 trillion, but the lunatics on X are saying "everybody's selling".

Grand total net value was up nearly $128 billion compared to June, and nearly $740 billion year over year.

The value of US Treasury securities in foreign hands made a new record high in June 2024 at $8.21 trillion

 

click to expand

The obscenity of US national debt at $34.5 trillion notwithstanding, the value of grand total foreign ownership of it is up almost $529 billion year over year in March 2024 to a record high of . . .

. . . $8.091 trillion.

An almost 7% increase.

Here.

Meanwhile:

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio told the Financial Times a few days ago that he is concerned the soaring U.S. debt levels will make Treasurys less attractive “particularly from international buyers worried about the US debt picture and possible sanctions.”

So far, that hasn’t been the case: Foreign holdings of U.S. federal debt stood at $8.1 trillion in March, up 7% from a year ago, according to Treasury Department data released Wednesday. Risk-free Treasurys are still seen as an attractive place to park cash, but that could change if the U.S. doesn’t rein in its finances.

On an average monthly basis, yields on all UST peaked for this cycle last October, save for 1Y which peaked last September.

What, me worry?

 

The value of US Treasury securities owned by foreigners increased about $100 billion year over year in May 2023, significantly less than the $300 billion increases seen since 2018

 

click to enlarge

Foreign ownership level of US Treasury securities fell 6.2% year over year in October

 The level contracted to a point approximately last seen in May 2021.

As reported levels in the table are subject to revision in future monthly tables. My graph shows as reported levels in May each year. 

The drop probably does not reflect actual selling, but falling market value of UST because of the bond rout.

It doesn't matter that China has been selling US Treasury securities, world appetite for US denominated debt inexorably rises year after year

 Beijing Dumps $100 Billion Worth Of Treasuries... ^

US Treasury securities remain the cleanest dirty clothes in the laundry and steadily command a bid despite paying little

 

The US 10-year is paying but 1.28% this morning.

Meanwhile, pheriners continue to gobble up US Treasury securities, just as we do, in a desperate search for safe yield, up 6.2% year over year

Grand total foreign holdings of US Treasury securities in May, 2000-2019

Demand slowed from 2013 as stocks once again got a bid (permanent adoption of Bush tax cuts by Obama and Boehner removed uncertainty), but a flight to safety reappeared in 2019 and 2020. Total was still $6.8 trillion in Mar 2020 even after a big drop from Feb amid currency turmoil, the latest report.

The bid for bonds shows the global economy was already weak last year.

The Wall Street Journal made a big deal of the $85 billion drop in foreign holdings of UST in Sep, nevermind holdings are up $550 billion year over year

Foreign holdings of US Treasuries soared to $6.857 trillion in Aug 2019, up 9% year over year