Chian vendio bonos americanos por tercer mes
China vendio $5.4 billones y tienen $1.155 trillones.
Pero las ventas de bonos americanos subieron.
Japon conitnuo comprando.
China Sold Treasurys for Third Month
By IAN TALLEY And TOM BARKLEY
WASHINGTON—China was a net seller of U.S. Treasurys in January, but remained the largest foreign holder, the Treasury Department said.
Overall, foreigners were net buyers of long-term U.S. financial assets in January, according to the monthly Treasury International Capital report, known as TIC.
China slimmed its net holdings for the third month by $5.4 billion to $1.155 trillion, following net selling of $4.0 billion in December and $11 billion in November. The biggest owner of U.S. debt hit a record $1.175 trillion of holdings of U.S. Treasury securities in October.
Meanwhile, Japan continued its net buying of Treasurys, hitting another record level in January. Japan remained the second-largest holder of Treasurys, boosting its holdings to $885.9 billion from $882.3 billion in December. It's unclear yet what the full impact of the country's devastating earthquake and tsunami will be on U.S. capital flows, but there are widespread reports of repatriation of funds to help shore up the nation as its recovers from its catastrophe.
Among all foreign investors, net purchases of U.S. Treasury notes and bonds totaled $46.5 billion, compared with net buying of $54.6 billion in December. Private foreign investors bought a net in $30.1 billion Treasury notes and bonds, after buying a net of $43.0 billion the previous month.
The closely watched figure of net long-term securities transactions showed total buying of $51.5 billion in long-term U.S. securities in January, after purchases of $62.5 billion the month before.
More broadly, net purchases of long-term U.S. securities, including transactions that don't occur on the open market, totaled $32.1 billion following net buying of $38.4 billion the month before.
The monthly Treasury report highlights cross-border acquisitions of securities with maturities of more than one year including non-market transactions such as stock swaps and principal repayment on asset-backed securities.
The report's most comprehensive category, "monthly net TIC flows," includes non-market flows, short-term securities and changes in banks' dollar holdings. This measure of net foreign capital inflow was $32.5 billion, compared with an inflow of $49.7 billion in December. Financial market analysts consider the monthly data from the Treasury Department to be a significant but imprecise gauge of how easily the U.S. can finance its trade deficit.
U.S. data released last week showed the trade gap widened sharply in January to its highest level in seven months on the back of a surge in oil prices and an expanding deficit with China.
Write to Ian Talley at
ian.talley@dowjones.com and Tom Barkley at
tom.barkley@dowjones.com