Asia y Europa mantendran los bonos de US
El Asia, Rusia y Europa mantendran sus tenencias de treasuries. Rusia dijo que una sola rebaja, puede ser ignorada. South Korea puso el tema en una agenda de emergencia para la reunion de maniana. China dijo que US debe curar su adiccion a la deuda, Francia cuestiono junto con US las acciones de S&P.
Inglaterra dijo que US tenia que "ordenar la casa"
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Asia, Europe to ‘Stick It Out’ With Treasuries
Asian states and Russia are likely to retain their U.S. Treasury holdings after Standard & Poor’s cut the U.S.’s sovereign credit rating to AA+ as European governments expressed confidence in the world’s largest economy.
Russia said the one-step cut “can be ignored.” South Korean officials put the downgrade on the agenda of an emergency meeting on global turmoil tomorrow. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said in a commentary the U.S. must cure its “addiction” to borrowing. With Europe battling its debt crisis, France joined the U.S. in questioning S&P’s reasoning.
For all the angst, policy makers from China to Japan to Southeast Asia are lured to Treasuries as a result of efforts to stem gains in their currencies against the dollar, which would impair export competitiveness. Asia accounts for about half of foreign-owned U.S. debt, Treasury data show.
“They won’t be happy about it, but Asian central banks will just have to hold on and stick it out,” said Sean Callow, a senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. (WBC) in Sydney. “There is pressure on them to hold on to liquid assets and there is nothing more liquid than the Treasury market. At least Treasuries have been doing well and they aren’t holding on to distressed assets.”
China has accumulated $1.16 trillion in U.S. debt and is the largest individual foreign holder, while Japan’s intervention this week to sell an estimated excess of 4 trillion yen ($51 billion) presents a potential new source of demand.
Investors in Treasuries earned 3.12 percent in the three months ending July 31, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch data. That means a $10 million holding earned $312,000 in the period.
Treasuries Rally
Treasuries have rallied in recent weeks even after S&P warned it may lower the rating from AAA, as investors sought a haven amid deepening concerns that the global economic rebound may fade. Yields on benchmark 10-year notes closed at 2.56 percent yesterday, before the S&P announcement of the cut to AA+, down from 3.12 percent a month ago.
Japan, the second-largest international investor in American government debt, sees no problem with trust in the securities, a Japanese government official said on condition of anonymity.
In the U.K., the world’s third-largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, Business Secretary Vince Cable said the dollar is “the key international currency” in the short run.
‘Back on Track’
“Although the American legislators made a terrible mess of things a few weeks ago they have now got things back on track and undertaken to manage their debt in a prudent way,” Cable said in an interview with the BBC.
Russia considers U.S. debt reliable and won’t review its policy of investing in the country, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said by phone today, adding that the credit- rating downgrade “can be ignored.” for long-term investment strategy. Russia is one of the 10 largest foreign holders of U.S. government debt.
The central bank of Saudi Arabia, one of the oil exporting nations that together are the fourth-biggest holders of U.S. government debt, didn’t respond to questions faxed by Bloomberg.
The S&P decision went further than Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, which affirmed their AAA credit ratings for the U.S. on Aug. 2, the day U.S. President Barack Obama signed a bill that ended the debt-ceiling impasse that pushed the country to the edge of default. Moody’s and Fitch both said that downgrades were possible if lawmakers fail to enact debt reduction measures and the economy weakens.
‘Not Consensual’
The Treasury Department said the S&P decision was flawed by putting discretionary spending levels at $2 trillion higher than the Congressional Budget Office estimates, said a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified. S&P disputed that, saying its judgment wasn’t meaningfully affected by such spending figures.
“We can ask why this agency took this decision based on figures that are not consensual,” French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said in an interview on RTL Radio. “There will be a debate in the U.S. about this decision. It’s one out of three agencies. It’s only one element.”
Treasuries have benefited from a global sell-off in stocks, with yields on three-month Treasury bills dipping into negative territory this month. The MSCI World Index fell to the weakest level since November.
European Prospects
U.S. gross domestic product data last month showed a 1.3 percent growth pace in the second quarter, after a near stall in the first three months of 2011. China’s manufacturing expanded the least since February 2009 last month. In Europe, prospects are clouded by policy makers’ failure to contain a sovereign- debt crisis that still threatens to engulf Italy and Spain, whose bonds have tumbled in the past month.
Obama and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron joined telephone consultations with euro-area counterparts yesterday as investors signaled concern a July 21 agreement to expand the 440 billion-euro ($628 billion) rescue fund would fail to stop the rot.
After a series of calls involving German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, European leaders pledged to push implementation of last month’s deal on the European Financial Stability Facility. Berlusconi announced measures to speed austerity and target a balanced budget in 2013, a year ahead of schedule.
‘Wake-up Call’
Over the longer term, failure by the U.S. to restrain its borrowing may spur diversification out of Treasuries. The bill Obama signed this week was a compromise from Congress that raised the federal borrowing limit while putting off decisions on specific budget cuts or revenue increases.
“This is clearly a wake-up call for the U.S. and those who think a downgrade doesn’t matter are in denial,” said Thomas Lam, Singapore-based chief economist at OSK-DMG, who accurately forecast when the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression would end. “Markets will enforce their disciple if the U.S. doesn’t repair its credit rating.”
S&P kept the outlook for the U.S. grade at “negative,” citing the nation’s political process and criticizing lawmakers for failing to cut spending enough to reduce record budget deficits. The rating may be cut to AA within two years if spending reductions are lower than agreed to, the New York-based rating company said.
S&P currently gives 18 sovereign entities its top ranking, including Australia, Hong Kong and the Isle of Man, according to a July report. The U.K. which is estimated to have debt-to-GDP this year of 80 percent, 6 percentage points higher than the U.S., also has the top credit grade. In contrast with the U.S., its net public debt is forecast to decline either before or by 2015, S&P said in yesterday’s statement.
New Zealand is the only country other than the U.S. that has a AA+ rating from S&P and an Aaa grade from Moody’s. Belgium has an equivalent AA+ grade from S&P, Moody’s and Fitch.
To contact the reporters on this story: Chris Anstey in Tokyo on
canstey@bloomberg.net; Shamim Adam in Singapore at
sadam2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Anstey in Tokyo on
canstey@bloomberg.net