So much for ‘Sell America’… Foreign investors line up to net buy U.S. assets

Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy and escalating geopolitical tensions involving the Middle East, South America and Greenland, global investors opted to invest in U.S. assets.

The U.S. Treasury said on the 18th (local time) that foreign investors net purchased $1.55 trillion in long-term U.S. financial assets over the past year, up 31.3% from a year earlier. Of the total net purchases, $658.5 billion flowed into equities and $442.7 billion into Treasuries. Funds also saw net inflows into corporate bonds ($327.8 billion) and agency securities ($112.9 billion).

The move runs counter to concerns that the unpredictable course of the U.S. administration could trigger “Sell America” (selling U.S. assets). In fact, as tensions between President Trump and Europe escalated over the annexation of Greenland, a Danish pension fund, AkademikerPension, warned last month it would sell all of its roughly $100 million holdings of U.S. Treasuries.

Investors in particular increased their equity exposure by taking advantage of the phase of dollar-value adjustment. According to the Treasury, net equity purchases by non-U.S. investors totaled $720.1 billion last year, surging 134% from the prior year. While there were headwinds for the stock market, including President Trump’s threats to the independence of the U.S. central bank (Fed) and various policy changes, expectations that advances in artificial intelligence (AI) would lift corporate earnings offset them.

Owen Lamont, senior vice president at Acadian Asset Management, told Bloomberg, “American exceptionalism showed up in the stock market,” adding, “The extreme love for U.S. tech stocks seems to continue.”

Excluding the Cayman Islands and Ireland—where many global investment funds are registered—Norway ranked first in net purchases of U.S. equities last year, net buying $81.8 billion. Singapore ($79.0 billion) and South Korea ($73.6 billion) followed. In South Korea’s case in particular, net purchases increased by about five times from 2024, reflecting buying by so-called “retail investors in U.S. stocks.”

By contrast, China net sold $208.6 billion in long-term U.S. financial assets last year, extending net sales for a third consecutive year. It also net sold $34.1 billion of U.S. equities. As of the end of last year, China’s holdings of U.S. Treasuries stood at $683.5 billion, the lowest level since 2008.

Reporter Han Kyung-je