Foreigners Were Behind June S&P Breakout With Record Purchase Of $120 Billion In US Stocks

Regular readers – and certainly market traders – may remember June best for being the month the S&P finally broke out above the 4,200 resistance level that had capped the rangebound market since last August.

And courtesy of the just released Treasury International Capital data released moments ago by the Treasury, we now know who was behind this powerful breakout higher.

As the chart below shows, after month of mixed flows – and not one single month with more than $75BN in stock purchases by foreign buyers – in June the amount of US stocks purchases by foreigners, both official institutions and “other”, or private entities, exploded to an all time high $120.6 billion, broken down $15.5BN to official buyers and $105.1BN for “other” foreigners.

The record burst of stock purchases meant that after 17 months of net negative prints, in June the TTM amount of US stock purchases by foreigners turned positive to the tune of $92.2BN, the first non-negative print since the post-covid buying frenzy when the Fed backstopped, well, everything.

But it wasn’t just corporate stocks: foreigners also bought a whopping $66.4BN in US Treasuries…

… $25BN in Agencies, and $32BN in Corporate bonds, for a grand total of $244BN in total long-term assets purchase by foreigners, the biggest monthly total on record.

And while the June grand total of foreign Treasury holdings hit a 16 month high of $7.563 trillion, mostly thanks to buying by Japan, the UK, Ireland, and others…

… China’s relentless selling continued, and brought the country’s total TSY holdings to $835.4BN, the lowest level since 2009.