[caww]

To tuck under your cap.....

The US ‘Federal Reserve reported’ an unprecedented $100 billion dollar drop in the quantity of foreign-owned Treasury bonds it stores.

This prompted speculation that a major holder of US dollars, most likely Russia, had shifted its dollar holdings overseas to a non-US bank .....to prevent US authorities from confiscating the funds.

[Marguerite]

"The US ‘Federal Reserve reported’ an unprecedented $100 billion dollar drop in the quantity of foreign-owned Treasury bonds it stores."

03/14/2014

So here it goes: in the just reported latest data, for the week ended March 12, Treasury'ss held in custody by the Fed dropped to $2.855 trillion: a drop of $104.5 billion. This was the biggest drop of Treasurys held by the Fed on record, i.e., foreigners were really busy selling.

The selling over the last week coincides with the latest US employment statistics, a run of weak data from China and the escalation of the situation in Crimea and Ukraine. Russia has threatened to respond with sanctions of its own should economic measures be imposed by the EU and the US after the referendum in Crimea this weekend. Russia currently holds $138.6bn of USTs and the country has been a net seller for a combined $11.3bn of USTs over the last two months for when data is available. China sold $47.8bn alone in December.