U.S. Treasury sales by Japanese investors exceeded purchases by a record in May amid the biggest monthly drop for the securities in more than three years.
Money managers in the Asian nation unloaded a net 3 trillion yen ($30 billion) of U.S. government bonds in a fifth straight month of overall sales that was the largest in data from 2005, the Ministry of Finance said today. In June, Japanese investors were net sellers of overseas debt valued at a record 2.96 trillion yen, taking the total to 10.6 trillion yen this year, the data show. That’s on track for the first net annual sales ever.
A more than 20 percent drop in the yen against the dollar over the past year has prompted funds managers in Japan to take profit on their offshore debt holdings. At the same time, the Japanese bond market is being spared a global rout that’s pushed the U.S. Treasury 10-year (USGG10YR) yield to a two-year high as the Bank of Japan buys sovereign debt from the market.
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