There is a conflict between Wall Street analysts right now over the right strategy for dealing with U.S. dollar-denominated assets. Some, like Pimco chief investment officer Dan Ivascyn, have recommended investors diversify out of U.S. equities because the Trump administration is so unpredictable. And analysts at ING have been pushing a “sell America” argument for a while now, noting that the 9% decline in the value of the dollar over the last 12 months has imposed a harsh haircut on anyone who bought U.S. assets in that period.
But yesterday we got some data showing that the tide may be turning against the “sell America” crowd.
First, the S&P 500 ticked up 0.26% yesterday and futures were up 0.36% this morning. One day’s trading is not significant on its own, of course. But it means that the S&P is up 1.45% year to date—a pretty decent pace of growth over such a short stretch.
More significantly, The U.S. government released its most recent numbers for Treasury International Capital Data (covering November) and they revealed that net foreign inflows into U.S. assets of all kinds were $212 billion.
That’s a lot, according to ING’s Chris Turner.
