Market observers have pointed to several concurrent trends as evidence that investors might be shifting away from American assets. Over the past one-year period the U.S. dollar has weakened by more than 9%, while prices for precious metals have climbed to fresh all-time highs in recent days. At the same time, last year the benchmark S&P 500 underperformed the All Country World index excluding the U.S., a gauge that tracks large- and mid-cap equity exposure across most developed markets.
Those moves have been cast by some as the emergence of a "Sell America" trade - a broader reallocation of capital away from the United States and toward foreign markets. The phrase returned to market conversations following the sharp sell-offs in U.S. stocks, Treasury bonds, and the dollar around the April 2025 "Liberation Day" tariffs.
However, in a client note Yardeni Research contends that the available data do not support a broad-based abandonment of U.S. assets. Yardeni’s analysts pointed to detailed cross-border flow statistics to make that case.
- Over the 12 months through November 2025, foreign official accounts were net sellers of U.S. securities to the tune of $51 billion.
- By contrast, private foreign accounts bought approximately $1.5 trillion of U.S. capital market assets during that same 12-month window, near record highs for such purchases.
- Broken down further, private foreign investors purchased about $664 billion of U.S. equities and roughly $949 billion of U.S. bonds.
- Foreign direct investment into the United States totaled $324 billion in the four quarters through the July-September period, with Yardeni noting the potential for material increases if recent commitments by overseas firms and countries are realized.
Yardeni’s review also covered reserve holdings and official sector behavior. The analysts observed that, despite a notable rise in the value of gold reserves driven by higher bullion prices, foreign official accounts still hold more U.S. Treasuries than gold. In aggregate, foreigners now own a record $9.4 trillion in U.S. Treasuries, the note said.
The research team did flag a limitation in their analysis: they did not examine whether U.S. investors are themselves reducing holdings of American securities to buy foreign assets. That specific cross-flow is outside the scope of the Yardeni note, which focused on foreign purchases and official reserve positions.
Taken together, Yardeni’s read of the evidence is that net private foreign demand for U.S. capital markets has remained robust even as the dollar weakened and gold rallied. The data cited show strong inflows from private foreign accounts alongside relatively modest official-sector selling, substantial foreign direct investment, and record foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries.
Context for market participants - For investors and market strategists assessing allocation shifts, the Yardeni findings highlight that headline moves in currencies, commodities, and relative index performance do not automatically translate into a wholesale exit of foreign investors from U.S. assets. The note emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between private and official sector flows when diagnosing broad market trends.