Selling Treasuries Looks Symbolic If European Funds Keep Stocks

The US Treasury Department building in Washington.

Photographer: Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg

Sales of US Treasury holdings by European pension funds have largely been shrugged off by global investors, so long as they keep their much larger stockpiles of US corporate debt and equities.

Speculation that Europe could leverage US assets to retaliate against Donald Trump’s bid for Greenland has been the chatter on trading floors and at the Davos gathering this week. Yet the reality is that, apart from being hard to do, the most significant exposure is to America’s companies rather than its government, strategists and fund managers say.