Danish pension fund to sell $100 million in U.S. Treasuries due to “poor U.S. government finances”

A Danish pension fund is planning to sell its entire holdings of U.S. Treasuries — about $100 million — over concerns about the U.S. government’s financial stability.

AkademikerPension confirmed to CBS News that it is exiting U.S. Treasuries by the end of this month and that it will instead turn to the U.S. dollar and short-duration debt.

“The decision is rooted in the poor U.S. government finances, which make us think that we need to make an effort to find an alternative way of conducting our liquidity and risk management,” Anders Schelde, chief investment officer of AkademikerPension, told CBS News in a statement.

Moody’s Ratings in May downgraded the U.S. credit rating from the highest level — Aaa — to Aa1, one notch lower, citing rising government debt and heightened policy uncertainty tied to President Trump’s trade policy.

Danish-owned AkademikerPension, which offers pension plans for academics, has used U.S. Treasuries for many years as a source of liquidity, Schelde said in his statement.

The move comes as President Trump steps up his pressure campaign to acquire Greenland. Schelde claimed on Tuesday that the company’s decision was “not directly related to the ongoing rift between the US and Europe,” adding, “but of course that didn’t make it more difficult to take the decision.”

 

 

 

Read more @cbsnews