US Treasuries sell-off deepens as ‘safe haven’ status challenged

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.09-073405/https://www.ft.com/content/0005e091-930d-46ff-9e81-8591704a9282

Treasuries sold off on Wednesday as President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect, deepening investor concern about the “safe haven” status of US sovereign debt.

The 10-year US Treasury yield jumped to 4.51 per cent before falling back to 4.37 per cent — up 0.11 percentage points on the day — while the 30-year yield briefly rose above 5 per cent. The 10-year yield has risen from less than 3.9 per cent earlier this week.

The moves offer a new challenge to the Trump administration, which had previously cited lowering Treasury yields as a key policy aim, and could mark a loss of investor confidence in the world’s largest sovereign debt market.

“The sell-off may be signalling a regime shift whereby US Treasuries are no longer the global fixed-income safe haven,” said Ben Wiltshire, a rates strategist at Citi.