China Sells Long-Term US Treasury Bonds In October

12-15-2010 • ZeroHedge.com

The October TIC Data is out (although courtesy of the total and ridiculous redesign of the Treasury's website, is a complete nightmare to navigate). Net foreign purchases of US securities amounted to $54.7 billion, down from a revised $90 billion in September, and even more from $136.3 billion in August. Net foreign purchases, net of adjustments and US purchases of foreign securities, amounted to $7.2 billion, substantially lower than expectations of $51 billion. Digging through the data reveals some interesting trends, namely the purchases of LT Treasurys, while still positive, plummeted from purchases of $78.3 billion and $117 billion in the prior two months. The savings grace is that foreign purchases of Corporate Stocks remained relatively strong, at $16 billion. Looking at China we observe that the country actually sold off Long Term UST (while buying Short Term Bills): this means that the Fed, with its $966 billion in US paper is now untouchable at the top of all holders of US Treasurys.