Every share of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY 0.09%) you own, and every Treasury bond in your retirement account, exist inside a market that foreign investors have filled with more than $35 trillion in capital. That figure, from the U.S. Treasury’s most recent annual survey published in June 2025, is up from roughly $31 trillion a year earlier.
Critically, that pool’s growing or shrinking tells you (on a very approximate basis) how much the rest of the world trusts and is attracted to the American financial system. Recently, that trust has come under scrutiny. Let’s look at what’s actually happening and investigate why it matters for your portfolio.
Image source: Getty Images.
Asset prices are signals about investors’ confidence
When a pension fund in Amsterdam or a sovereign wealth fund in Abu Dhabi buys U.S. stocks and bonds, it’s making an implicit bet that the U.S. economy…
