Swedish Alecta has sold off an estimated $8B of US Treasury Bonds

https://www.di.se/nyheter/di-avslojar-alecta-har-dumpat-amerikanska-statspapper/

by madspindel • 6 months ago

209 179 6 months ago

toomuchtodo8• 6 months ago

Swedish pension fund Alecta cuts US Treasury holdings citing US politics - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46705118 - January 2026 (0 comments)

Bessent Shrugs Off 'Irrelevant' Danish Treasuries Sales - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46702927 - January 2026 (0 comments)

Danish Pension Fund AkademikerPension to Exit US Treasuries - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46693791 - January 2026 (2 comments)

Danish pension fund to divest its U.S. Treasuries - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46692594 - January 2026 (730 comments)

onraglanroad3• 6 months ago

What would be more serious is if the Norwegian Government Pension Fund started to sell off US investments.

That runs around $2 trillion.

IAmGraydon• 6 months ago

Norway only holds $219 billion in US Treasury bonds. What investments are you talking about?

wafflemaker• 6 months ago

Maybe they wanted to say what you did, but accidently used the total worth of the whole Oil Fund (as it's called in Norway, because it was started with money taxed from oil companies extracting in Norwegian seas).

alecco• 6 months ago

> sell off US investments

I think he means also US stocks. So most of the wealth fund.

blitzar5• 6 months ago

https://www.nbim.no/en/investments/all-investments/

I make it only 1.5 trillion equities - they run about a 70 / 30 split stocks to bonds.

They could easily trim up their $50bn of Nvidia or their $50bn of Microsoft or their $40bn of Apple etc and put it to better use.

stackghost3• 6 months ago

Avalanches can start with a single stone.

EU together with UK and Canada hold more Treasurys than the entire rest of the world combined, and if they dumped them all at once it would be significantly painful for the average American as interest rates would spike, as would inflation. The Dollar would decline against most other major currencies.

However dumping that much debt all at once would require the sellers to heavily discount a large portion of their bonds, earning them increasingly fewer, and paying in (depreciating) dollars.

It's exceedingly likely that de-dollarization accelerates from here, but it's also unlikely that even the Norwegian government sells it all at once. Rather than mass selling, expect EU entities to curtail or even cease buying US bonds altogether if the geopolitical situation doesn't improve.

JanisErdmanis• 6 months ago

However dumping that much debt all at once would require the sellers to heavily discount a large portion of their bonds, earning them increasingly fewer, and paying in (depreciating) dollars.

I think all investors are now looking at this with this foresight. Being the first to dump seems to be the winning game here.

arnonejoe• 6 months ago

The fed would almost certainly intervene aggressively resuming large scale QE to buy up treasuries and stabilize yields.

rishab178• 6 months ago

EU together with UK and Canada hold more Treasurys than the entire rest of the world combined

That is just not true? Out of the $38T, ~75% is held be US Domestic entities. Even of the remaining 25%, these 3 don’t combine together to form a majority. It’ll come out to something like $3.5T out of the $9.1T foreign holding (~38%). Or under 10% of the total debt.

https://economicsinsider.com/top-15-largest-us-treasury-hold...

christkv2• 6 months ago

You have no idea how that would destroy the Norwegian State. They are addicted to money from that fund. A collapse in it's value would have direct impact on the finances of the state. Nearly 1/4 of the budget is funded from that found a year.

onraglanroad3• 6 months ago

That's got to be a tiny amount relative to the fund size though.

Anyway, how would that destroy the fund? They'd be selling it not giving it away.

KellyCriterion• 6 months ago

The contribution of the State Fund to national pensions is around 20-25% to the state expenses

jakobnissen• 6 months ago

A brief search suggests this is around 1/4000th of the total US treasury market, so if this has any significance at all, it's symbolic.

oulipo2• 6 months ago

Symbolism has importance

rdtsc• 6 months ago

Exactly but it has to be recognized as such. It’s easy to fall into self delusion and make it into some “oh yeah this will be collapse of the US empire, finally” story.

Not, that it also fun to go with that story, but as long as everyone in the room understands it’s sort of a wishful fantasy.

deadbabe2• 6 months ago

Every waterfall begins with a drop.

zeroonetwothree2• 6 months ago

But 99.99% of drops do not cause a waterfall

margalabargala• 6 months ago

1/4000th in this context seems huge to be honest.

irishcoffee3• 6 months ago

If the US paid $8B towards it debt every _day_ it would take over thirteen _years_ (completely ignoring interest accumulation, which isn't realistic) to pay off $38T in debt.

I don't see how this is huge in context, it is indeed symbolic.

Please don't get me wrong here, I am neither advocating the selling or not selling of US bonds. This specific sale just isn't statically significant in a vacuum. If this precipitates a snowball effect of bond-selling, completely different story.

phkahler• 6 months ago

> A brief search suggests this is around 1/4000th of the total US treasury market, so if this has any significance at all, it's symbolic.

If someone thinks the value of those bonds is going to drop, then selling would have great significance for the seller.

forgetfreeman2• 6 months ago

"There have been spontaneous demonstrations amongst the workers voicing their joy and gratitude at our happy new way of life." - Orwell, more or less.

blipvert• 6 months ago

Faith Collapsing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68DJCaqEpDc

twelvedogs• 6 months ago

No one wants to be left holding the bag

SilverElfin2• 6 months ago

Not really - it is going to show the world what alternatives people are pursuing as a strategy. Where they put their money will cause others to do the same. And the more people do it, the safer those new assets become. That will cause even more people to make the move.

Note that China has been selling US treasuries for months now (https://www.barrons.com/articles/china-sells-treasuries-9-st...) and there are signs that India has been quietly selling large amounts too. So it feels like the start of something much bigger, a total decoupling from the US due to its unstable politics, foreign policy, and quickly accumulating debt (Trump has added $5 trillion already and may add much more).

tgv• 6 months ago

But it might also signify (as in: be a symbol) that European funds are less willing to buy future US bonds, which has a more dramatic impact.

deeg• 6 months ago

It seems like if they are trying to put pressure on the US government it might be easier to dump Tesla stock. Maybe the billionaires and MAGA would buy to keep it propped up but if it turned into a selling frenzy musk could be in trouble.

josefritzishere• 6 months ago

It's self evident that this is just the beginning. Expect one group of pundits to pretend this is irrelevant as long as possible.

shermantanktop• 6 months ago

A pundit saying "oh no, the world is ending" gets a lot more coverage than "nothing to see here, move along."

Then again, they say whatever they need to in order for their paychecks to keep coming.

overfeed3• 6 months ago

Talking heads serve the interests of their wealthy benefactors who have gone all out to own/control all of news media. Benefactors whose wealth is almost entirely tied up in securities.

zppln• 6 months ago

What are some realistic alternatives to US markets here? Selling is one thing, the question is what to buy instead? I mean, everyone starting to buy european instead would be great for stock prices, but it wouldn't make the underlying assets more valuable, right?

ares623• 6 months ago

Just needs to be more valuable than the US bonds that are 100% gonna tank I guess

“I don’t need to outrun the bear. I just need to outrun you. “

munk-a• 6 months ago

Well, if we're talking about the value of the underlying assets - then I imagine you have all your savings in gold because the PE ratios in the US stock market are already absolutely insane.

If you're trying to escape an expected upcoming crash you don't necessarily need to look for growth but instead stability. Precious metals are always popular but simply shifting a portion of your money into an index fund of a different stock exchange should help minimize your exposure to any catastrophic loss.

This is, of course, not financial advice.

toomuchtodo8• 6 months ago

Sovereign debt of a more politically stable nation state or other monetary union, if you are investing at these levels. If you're an individual, you have more options, although there will be fierce debate about the risk profile (as US Treasuries were historically considered to be risk free).

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=449401

arjie• 6 months ago

The disciple went to his master and said "Master, I am considering stopping doing a thing and starting to do a different thing. But I am not certain what the new thing is that I should be doing".

The master turned to the disciple and said: "A better thing"

The disciple was enlightened.

EDIT: Oh damn it. The entirety of the comment was "Sovereign debt of a more politically stable nation state or other monetary union" at the time I replied. Ah well.

kavalg2• 6 months ago

But I am having a hard time identifying this union/nation. Unfortunately, it feels like the EU is set on a downward trajectory.

loeg10• 6 months ago

Which nation states might you consider more politically stable than the US, even now?

SilverElfin2• 6 months ago

It depends on the goal. People buy bonds to play a certain role in their overall investment strategy. China and India have been quietly selling American bonds and focusing on gold / silver / etc. BRICS has also talked for a while about forming their own shared virtual currency but that is further away. You can buy other assets as a store of value too.

heathrow83829• 6 months ago

i've wondered this myself. I thought that everyone was selling bonds and just buying equities, gold and bitcoin. isn't that only game plan? bonds aren't investible anymore for anything more than 5 year time horizon.

thatguy09002• 6 months ago

Bitcoin is going down, wherever they're fleeing it's not that

toast0• 6 months ago

If you divest US bonds, you would probably put them into bonds from other nations (and corporate bonds from non-US companies), easiest thing is to try to find a index to track; Vanguard's BNDX tracks the Bloomberg Global Aggregate ex-USD Float Adjusted RIC Capped Index (Hedged).

In a mark to market world, the value of a bond is its acquisition cost, so buying bonds enough to raise prices increases their value, but not their coupons or their face value. It's hard to make sense of the value of a sequence of payments, it's reasonable to consider the present value and the market price is an easily justified present value for a bond.

Selling bonds and buying stocks is a different thing altogether. Selling US stocks and buying EU stocks wouldn't change the value of the underlying assets, however, having an increased stock price does have benefits for the company when issuing new shares or bonds.

dripdry453• 6 months ago

Large institutions have been moving in this direction for about a year. I just put together a fairly more stable and diversified portfolio that is effectively only about 15% in the US. It involves some short-term private equity, lots of commodities, European cyclicals and financials, some small Deep value, energy and climate change infrastructure is on solid ground and being well funded around most of the world… they really are plenty of bright spots and lots of good advice out there, even from public letters from places like Van Eck, Piko, GMO funds, and others.

There are a number of very important categories to avoid, like convertibles, but overall it’s quite possible if you have a little bit of acumen with investing.

tick_tock_tick2• 6 months ago

There aren't any it's why the US takes in such crazy flows.

rixrax• 6 months ago

Canada?

downrightmike4• 6 months ago

Same thing that happened to Spain after the New World gold and silver came in, Inflation (limited local supply to spend on and so prices raise) and debt payments, ultimately leaving Spain poor.

jacquesm13• 6 months ago

Eurobonds. It may actually happen if this continues. But given the speed of the usual EU decision process I would not be surprised if it takes them longer than the current US administration to finally agree on the various terms. And that's good for Europe in multiple ways.

https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/eu-budget/e...

In the meantime: German, Dutch, UK (technically not EU), Swiss, Nordic paper is also a good substitute and regardless all you really want to do here is not to hold an asset that may well become a liability so in that sense almost anything is better.

marcyb5st4• 6 months ago

Swiss bonds are super safe, but they have ~0 interest rate and so you lose out on inflation.

robinsoncrusue2• 6 months ago

Eurozone has a looming debt crisis. ECB is actively capping the yields for countries bonds from Spain and Portugal which are showing stress signals. This will not end well for ECB this time around if they end up something like 2012.

https://substack.com/home/post/p-185202466

zrn9002• 6 months ago

What are some realistic alternatives to US markets here?

It seems to be precious metals. And at this point in time, especially silver. Even Indian government seems to be stockpiling silver.

stevenwoo• 6 months ago

At first I was leaning toward FGLD but didn't consider that current admin would blow up everything US, there are European alternatives to FGLD that OP might want to investigate that have physical metal reserves (there are many alternatives that represent various tiers of involvement in mining versus just holding precious metals, I'm speculating OP does not want to possess precious metals themselves).

blitzar5• 6 months ago

What are some realistic alternatives to US markets here

There is nothing particularly interesting or sexy about US treasuries. You could replace a holding of $8bn to $80bn with equivalent or better rated bonds in a half hour or so.

Replacing that sort of allocation of stocks or commodities would be way harder as returns on those assets are not as simple as "pays a 4% coupon each year" - finding an equivalent of Apple or Nvidia is not a trivial task.

Sytten• 6 months ago

The problem is that Europe doesn't have a European bond market to compete against the US bond market. It has the economic size and stability but not the will right now. Europe did try it a bit during COVID but financial services are just not there yet. The Euro very well become a reserve currency in a multipolar world if Europeans decide they want to shoulder it.

pxeger1• 6 months ago

Is it at all realistic to expect the stable and/or fiscally conservative countries to accept the high bond yields imposed by the more fiscally loose or perceived-risky countries? Could this ever happen without the EU centralising more control over fiscal policy?

notahacker• 6 months ago

No, it wouldn't work without the bond repayments being owed by a single fiscal entity, and hard to imagine Europe doing this for the foreseeable future even if they agree more tax harmonization and budget deficit rules.

But from the bondholder perspective, being able to pick and choose which countries to hold Euro denominated debt according to their risk tolerance is an advantage anyway.

amluto• 6 months ago

That’s a weird problem to have. The US has a huge bond market in part because the US has an absolutely enormous amount of debt, and the bonds are the US debt. The EU doesn’t have bloc-wide debt, for better or for worse.

As an interesting thought experiment, imagine a central bank associated with a debt-free country issuing bond-like instruments. They would set an interest rate (perhaps with no auction, because they have no actual obligation to sell a predetermined amount, although an auction could still be used), sell bonds, delete the money used to buy the bonds, and issue new money to repay them with interest when they mature. This could be used as a way to act efficiently as a reserve currency and to exert a degree of control over inflation and the economy, kind of like how the Fed does it. The bonds would likely be considered extremely secure on account of the issue being entirely debt-free.

I would be surprised if the EU did this as such, since the EU probably does not want to be in the business of competing for capital with its own members, who do have a fair amount of debt that they need to finance.

jacquesm13• 6 months ago

After COVID we had some but it is a tiny amount in comparison.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Generation_EU

linkregister2• 6 months ago

[American perspective] In February I looked toward Euro bond markets as a safe haven for increasing Treasury yields, but the choices did not look good. For starters it appears to be impossible to even trade in foreign bonds with traditional brokerage accounts in the United States (hosted by E-trade, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, etc).

Additionally, French bonds, while likely less-correlated with US Treasuries than other instruments, suffer from its own government having high debt levels; it's not a suitable safe-haven asset. Swiss and German bonds appear to be obvious alternatives. However, Swiss and German bonds' interest rates are low and in practice are little different than holding cash.

While gold appreciated in the short term, it is not simply inversely correlated with the value of the US Dollar. Its volatility is also driven by investors mitigating strict currency controls, mining productivity, and central bank activity. An unrelated downturn in one market could lead to a sell-off and wipe out gains. Gold also has no yield. Personally I think it's useful only in its physical form as a hedge for medium-term catastrophic events. Even then, a stockpile of food and clean water is likely far more valuable, if not substantially more difficult to store and maintain.

I ended up giving up, learning to love the S&P 500, and white-knuckling it ahead. Of the investable markets, the US one still generates the highest returns. (Chinese GDP growth is higher but its equities have low returns compared with other markets, due to political risk.)

jacquesm13• 6 months ago

And even if you tried to sidestep these restrictions you'd quickly find that your ability to deal with the EU financial system evaporates as soon as they find out that you are American.

throwaway2037• 6 months ago

    > For starters it appears to be impossible to even trade in foreign bonds with traditional brokerage accounts in the United States (hosted by E-trade, Morgan Stanley, Charles Schwab, etc).

Try Interactive Brokers. They are US-based, but offer accounts in most other countries. (Insane list here: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/open-account-...) I frequently recommend them here, so much so that I must look like a shill. I assure you that this is not a sponsored post! I have been a customer for 10+ years. I describe their service as institutional in breadth, but offered to retail customers. The number of international stocks markets, futures and options markets, and fixed income markets (all types of gov't and corporate bonds) is stunning. The numbers look similar to a Tier 1 investment bank, like Morgan Stanley, could offer their institutional clients. It is unmatched for non-institutional (retail) traders in my experience. It also has crazy low fees and is wildly transparent about them. To me, the only negative point is the website is a bit slow and feels about 5 years out of date, but that's not a deal breaker for me. I can trade all equities on the website, and the more complex things (like bonds or futures) I trade using their (I assume white-labeled) Java trading app that is cross-platform.

TacticalCoder2• 6 months ago

It has the economic size and stability but not the will right now.

The european union's GDP is a solid 50% behind the US (20 trillion vs 30 trillion). But more alarmingly the growth in the european union since the 2008 financial crisis has been totally anaemic: the growth doesn't even counter inflation and that growth only came at the cost of gigantic additional public debt. Meanwhile both the US and China's GDPs grew like mad.

I also dispute the stability of the EU: in many countries the people aren't happy at all and the far-right are winning elections everywhere. And it's only through tactics (like the center-right siding with the ultra far left in France to counter the far-right party who won the election) that parties that aren't the far-right are managing to prevent the far-right from reigning already.

For example in the European Parliament 36% of the 720 seats are for far-right parties. And that's after all the other parties colluding (including with the far left) to prevent the far right from having more seats.

And as people are more and more dissatisfied with the current situation in the EU, the far-right keep winning more and more voters (sounds familiar?).

The Euro very well become a reserve currency in a multipolar world if Europeans decide they want to shoulder it.

The Euro is only 27 years old, is a badly conceived currency and may turn out to be one of the shortest lived currency ever. There's no way it's ready to take on the role of the USD. France's finances, the eurozone's 2nd biggest economy, are crumbling (gigantic public debt and insane public deficit) and may very well be overtaken by the International Monetary Fund (like it happened to Greece) soon.

Germany is trying very hard to ban its far-right AFD party from the elections for they know they could very well win. If I'm not mistaken the leader of the AFD said if they won, they're out of the EU. Think it cannot happen? UK left the EU already.

It's not just the EURO that may be the shortest-lived currency ever: the EU is actually in trouble.

dwa35922• 6 months ago

This is directionally significant compared to the Danish sale(~$100 million) of US bonds.

loeg10• 6 months ago

US 10- and 30-year bonds are trading at their highest yields (lowest prices) since, uh, August/September 2025. Or in historical context, rates that were more common before 2007 and the ZIRP period.

rsync• 6 months ago

Some additional context: on March 10, 2023, which is the date that Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, 30 year treasuries had a yield of 3.70.

Today the yield is ~4.9.

Now, in 2026, how many institutions are "picking up pennies in front of steamrollers" ?

hopelite• 6 months ago

That all has way more to do with Japan’s bond issues and the carry trade unwinding. 8 billion will have caused a tick, but that’s nothing.

downrightmike4• 6 months ago

Which explains why the DOJ is going after the FED for not lowerign interest rates. They assume ZIRP will solve their problems, but that just kicks the can down the road, and it won't go far this time. Even Japan, which was our model for yield curve control has abandoned that theory.

Bunch of dumb people running the room and no experts.

IrishTechie• 6 months ago

Don’t think they’re dumb, their goals are just shorter-term, they need to juice the numbers before the next election cycle.

hadlock• 6 months ago

The only goal right now for a lot of people in Washington is to make "Number Go Up" ahead of November. So far the current strategies haven't been working, so they're going to have to get a lot more aggressive. Medium and long term consequences are a problem for the future.

TacticalCoder2• 6 months ago

Even Japan, which was our model for yield curve control has abandoned that theory.

Common please: Japan's rates have hovered around zero for about 30 years. Three decades. Japan has never been the model for yield curve and the theory they "abandoned" has been recently abandoned, after three decades.

zrn9002• 6 months ago

Dumb people? Those dumb people made billions of dollars with that scheme and dumped the bill on the shoulders of people - like you. Who's the dumb one...

ectospheno• 6 months ago

An equally valid headline is "Investors purchased $8B of US Treasury Bonds". Never really got the point of people announcing US Treasury sales like its a big thing. Someone else not thinking with their emotions can, and will buy them. Its like announcing publicly you are selling your Honda. Its your Honda bro, sell it.

zeroonetwothree2• 6 months ago

The classic “Sir, this is a Wendy’s”

Or if we want to be cynical, they hope the price will drop on this news and they can buy back in more cheaply.

knorker• 6 months ago

This is not exactly right. True, $8B is not earth shattering because of the US's enormous debt. But by removing a potential $8B owner, it is a reduction in demand, and thus a tiny reduction in price. This is literally the first rule of pricing: "supply and demand".

Sure, someone else is on the other side of the deal. But their demand is also satiated at a certain price point. Hell, if they wanted to buy from other sellers then it's not like T bills were not liquid.

Would you say the same if Norway's wealth fund offloaded their $181B? At those scales it would be more likely that it'd be visibly price affecting, and therefore affect the US's ability to borrow at existing cost.

So yes, when you sell your one NVDA, you are reducing demand and thus price. Epsilon, but nonzero.

mktk1001• 6 months ago

Because the implication is that underlying asset is regressing or degrading. It's very obvious, and this comment just highlights your lack of reading comprehension.

ternaryoperator• 6 months ago

It has importance beyond that someone else bought the bonds. It also suggests they will not be buyers in the future. If they represent the beginning of a trend and Europe stops buying US bonds, that will be a serious blow to the US economy.

willturman3• 6 months ago

"Investors purchased $8B of US Treasury Bonds from the non-issuing entity."

If you're Honda, you'd prefer that the purchaser of any Honda is purchasing their Honda from Honda. Honda doesn't care about the secondary sale of any one Honda, per se, but they'd certainly care if people start opening dealerships with fleets of effectively brand new Hondas immediately next to every Honda dealership.

Additionally, every seller that was a previous long-term holder represents decreased demand for Treasuries at the primary auction. Mark Carney put it eloquently yesterday during his speech with his analogy of "taking the sign out of the window". This represents someone taking their bid out of the auction.

sakjur• 6 months ago

The fund sold off most of their US bonds, some journalist heard about it and considered it newsworthy and published an article. DI.se’s readers are largely also benefactors/owners of Alecta’s, so that seems fair.

Someone else considered it worthy of sharing here and enough people here found it interesting enough to get it to the front page. I don’t quite understand why, but it seems like it’s striking some sort of chord.

jacquesm13• 6 months ago

If Honda wants to keep the value of Honda at what it is today and enough people are selling their Honda's then Honda is at some point going to have to support the market if they want to have any chance of selling Honda's in the future. And Honda has only so much capital to spend before the company itself is at risk.

marcyb5st4• 6 months ago

It is the second substantial sell from EU. Additionally, those things gain momentum fast since the later you sell the less money you make from the bonds you are selling.

So everyone doesn't want to be last and the sell-off takes off fast and violently, forcing unmanageable interest rates.

daneel_w• 6 months ago

What was the first substantial sale?

insane_dreamer2• 6 months ago

You could say the same when your stock price drops because large investors dumped your stock suddenly. Yes, there was a buying party (or they wouldn't have been able to sell), but the price drop hurts your company and worse can trigger more sales and more price drops.

similar with the US T-bonds - this pushes the yield up making it more expensive for the US to finance its debt (which already consumes nearly a fifth of the entire federal budget).

dwa35922• 6 months ago

They can start buying Euro bonds, Gold, bonds for the great european companies like ASML, Airbus etc?? they can basically find a way to invest in their future, right? they just need to figure out the right financial vehicle?

nemomarx• 6 months ago

They could just reinvest the 8 billion in all the other stuff they're holding, but something like those if they want to keep the diversification ratios high. Maybe the Yuan or Chinese companies?

jacquesm13• 6 months ago

There isn't enough of that to offset the enormous EU holdings of US paper.

wnevets• 6 months ago

is America great again yet?

moogly• 6 months ago

Hottest country in the world! Tremendous respect!

insane_dreamer2• 6 months ago

no all caps? I sense a lack of patriotism

Swedish Alecta has sold off an estimated $8B of US Treasury Bonds

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