Brian Chappatta, Columnist

Moscow Mystery: Where Did All Its Treasuries Go?

Its American debt holdings have plunged far more than any other nation’s.

July 19, 2018 at 11:00 AM UTC

Brian Chappatta is managing editor of Bloomberg News' leveraged finance and distressed debt teams. He was previously managing editor and team leader of its wealth group. Before that he was a Bloomberg Opinion markets and finance columnist and a bonds reporter for Bloomberg News.

Moscow mystery.
Photographer: Mladen Antonov/AFP/Getty Images

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U.S. bond traders are fixated on Russia this week for a much different reason than most Americans.

Just a day after President Donald Trump’s much-maligned meeting in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a monthly report from the Treasury Department showed that Russia is no longer considered a “major foreign holder” of U.S. government securities. That’s because in the two months through May 31, the nation’s Treasuries hoard plummeted to just $14.9 billion from $96.1 billion. The threshold to be considered a major holder is $30 billion. There are 33 of them.