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Gold has surpassed US Treasuries to become the world's top reserve asset, a European Central Bank (ECB) report has revealed. The shift highlights a major change in the global financial landscape as central banks continue to increase their gold reserves amid geopolitical uncertainty. By the end of 2025, gold accounted for 27% of official reserves, surpassing US Treasuries at 22% and euros at 15%.....

....State-run Chinese newspaper People’s Daily on Friday posted on its Twitter account a video of a long-range bomber landing in an island in the disputed waters. Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said the video was taken at Woody Island, China’s largest base in the Paracel Islands that is also being claimed by Vietnam. “Chinese bombers including the H-6K conduct takeoff and landing training on an island reef at a southern sea area,”read the Twitter post by People’s Daily. With its deployment in the Paracels, AMTI said the bombers could now reach almost the entire South China Sea. “Nearly all...

The US is heading toward a federal debt load that could reach 175% of gross domestic product over the next three decades unless Congress takes corrective action, according to a new special report from the Wells Fargo Investment Institute. But the firm's Global Fixed Income Strategy Team stopped well short of sounding an alarm for investors, arguing instead that the trajectory, while troubling, remains manageable. The report draws on Congressional Budget Office projections and Treasury Department data to paint a detailed picture of the country's fiscal position. The debt-to-GDP ratio is already expected to hit 101% in 2026, matching its...

“China is dumping US Treasuries to get out of the dollar.” This claim has been circulating the mainstream feeds lately, with the narrative that the “end of the dollar is near,” or “the US will lose its funding base” and the “bond yields will surge.” But are those claims valid? Such is what we will explore in more detail.Let’s start with the chart that has everyone concerned. As shown, China’s holdings of US Treasury bonds have fallen from nearly $1.2 trillion to $600 billion, or a 50% decline. On the surface, you can certainly understand the reasons for concern, as...

Central banks have crossed a symbolic line: their combined gold reserves now exceed their U.S. Treasury holdings for the first time in nearly three decades.The crossover underscores a gradual diversification away from dollar-denominated securities and toward hard assets.This visualization, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, tracks how these shares have evolved from the 1970s to today.The data comes from Crescat Capital macro strategist Tavi Costa.From Petrodollars to De-DollarizationAfter the end of Bretton Woods, soaring real interest rates and the rise of the petrodollar steered reserve managers toward U.S. Treasuries through the 1980s and 1990s.In the 2000s, the dollar’s depth and liquidity...

Gold gains some ground despite U.S. dollar’s rebound as traders focus on the continuation of the pullback in Treasury yields. From the technical point of view, gold needs to settle above the resistance at $3235 – $3245 to gain additional upside momentum in the near term. Silver remains stuck below the 50 MA at $32.51 as traders wait for additional catalysts. If silver moves back below the $32.00 level, it will head towards the nearest support at $31.45 – $31.75. Platinum tests new highs as rally continues amid tariff optimism. Platinum is heading towards the nearest resistance at $960 –...

The bond sell-off escalated Friday to cap off one of the most volatile and unusual trading weeks in recent memory as President Trump's tariff whipsaw sent yields surging and stocks plummeting.Long-term Treasury yields ripped higher, with the 10-year yield (^TNX) surging to its highest level since February to trade at around 4.53%, a massive 66 basis point swing from Monday's low of 3.87%.According to data compiled by Yahoo Finance, the 10-year has logged its biggest week since November 2021.Similarly, the 30-year yield (^TYX) jumped 7 basis points to trade near 4.92% — the highest level since January but the biggest...

Confidence in the US economy is plummeting as investors dumped government debt amid growing concerns over the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs. On Wednesday, the yield - or interest rate - on US bonds spiked sharply to touch the highest level since February at 4.5%. The government sell bonds - essentially an IOU - to raise money from financial markets and these are viewed as a safe investment, meaning the US normally does not need to offer high rates to attract buyers. Trump has gone ahead with sweeping tariffs on goods being imported into the US, while Washington's trade war...

China responds by selling another $50BN in TSY. Oh btw, the yield on 10Ys is now almost unchanged from Liberation Day!

President Donald Trump raised eyebrows Friday by sharing a video on Truth Social that claims he purposefully crashed the stock market to "push cash into treasuries." Trump's timing was especially provocative because his rollout of tariffs the previous day resulted in a multi-trillion dollar market wipeout.

Investors abroad sold longer term Treasuries for three consecutive months, a sign of central bankers reducing their reliance on the U.S. as a financial buffer. In January, foreigners sold a net $13.3 billion of U.S. notes and bonds that had more than one year to maturity, the latest Treasury data show. It comes after $49.69 billion was sold in December, following sales of $34.41 billion in the month of U.S. elections, November. Global central banks represent a big chunk of foreign demand. Before the back-to-back net selling of the world’s safest debt, foreigners had kept buying for 15 straight months....

U.S. Treasuries are now outperforming stocks since Donald Trump was elected President, and some strategists say there’s room for those gains to run. A Bloomberg gauge of U.S. sovereign debt has returned 2.1 per cent since the Nov. 5 vote, beating a gain of 1.6 per cent from the S&P 500 index including reinvested dividends. While long-end Treasuries declined on Tuesday after Trump imposed new 25 per cent trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico, the prospect of further Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts is seen giving bonds a further tailwind. Stocks meanwhile are being sold, as the outlook for global growth...

@WatcherGuru JUST IN: President Trump says Elon Musk's DOGE may have found fraud in treasuries.

According to Bank of America, gold has overtaken the euro to become the world’s second-largest central bank reserve asset. With the central bank gold buying spree over the last several years, along with the rapid rise in price in 2024, the yellow metal now makes up about 16 percent of total reserve assets, just ahead of the euro. The dollar’s share of reserves has dropped to 58 percent. There appears to be a movement to replace fiat currencies, including the dollar, with gold, especially in emerging market countries in the East. Central banks globally added a net 483 tons of...

Long touted as hands-down the world's "safe haven" securities, the behavior of U.S. Treasuries during and after the COVID-19 pandemic calls that label into question, suggesting they are little different from the debt issued by the likes of Germany, Britain, France, or even big corporations. That's the key finding of new research presented at the Kansas City Fed's annual research conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It examines a shift in investor behavior in that period that raises questions about the "exorbitant privilege" the U.S. government has long enjoyed to borrow broadly on the global market even as federal budget gaps...

The increasing likelihood of a second Trump administration has helped spark a selloff in U.S. government bonds, with investors betting policies including tax cuts could drive up deficits and inflation. Treasury yields, which rise when bond prices fall, started surging June 28, a day after a debate between President Biden and former President Donald Trump that Wall Street viewed as delivering a major blow to Biden’s re-election chances. A poor showing from Biden could also help tip control of Congress to Republicans, creating more space for their budget priorities. “Something obviously changed pretty quickly on Friday,” said Dan Mulholland, head...

According to a new report by analysts at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Waren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRK.B), controls 3% of the entire Treasury Bill market. Buffett now has $158 billion U.S. invested in Treasury Bills, or T-bills as they are known. A T-bill is a short-term debt obligation backed by the U.S. Treasury Department with a maturity of one-year or less. Interest is paid on T-bills when they mature or expire. With interest rates elevated, T-bills are currently paying interest of between 5% and 6%, depending on the length of time to maturity. Buffett has said that he favors...

Last week, I talked about the best places to keep your short-term cash, including Treasurys and certain certificates of deposit (CDs).Perhaps Warren Buffett is a Wealthy Retirement reader, because his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, is holding more cash in Treasurys than ever before: $189 billion. (As they used to say in the old New York state lottery commercial, “That’s a lot of bread!”)Interestingly, the only time Berkshire’s cash stash has declined since 2016 was in 2022, when the market had an awful year and dropped by more than 19%. That tells us that as the market was falling, Buffett was putting...

Warren Buffett hasn’t found a lot to like in the stock market recently.In each of the last six quarters, Buffett has sold more stocks for Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) (BRK.B) than he bought. Last quarter, he sold off a big chunk of his Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) position and the entirety of his Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA) investment. All told, he sold nearly $20 billion worth of stocks from Berkshire’s portfolio, and he bought less than $3 billion.Buffett lamented investment opportunities for Berkshire are few and far between as the company grows bigger. With a market cap of about $877 billion, there...

It has been over three years since the disastrous Covid economic shutdowns of 2020. And here we are again! US investment-grade bond yields have just had the biggest two-day drop since April 2020. And the US Treasury 10Y-2Y curve remains steeply inverted. Help me Jerome!