Financial safety

The US needs to borrow almost $300 billion this week


The United States plans to sell about $294 billion of debt, according to the Treasury Department. That's the highest for a week since the record set during the 2008 financial crisis.


Federal revenue is declining because of President Trump's tax cuts, so the government needs to borrow more to make ends meet. At the same time, Washington's borrowing costs have climbed rapidly in recent months.

"The amount of debt coming on the market this week is extremely large," said Rick Rieder, global chief investment officer of fixed income at BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager.

Awkward timing

The government is auctioning all this short- and longer-term debt at an awkward time. Last week, Trump vowed to impose wide-ranging tariffs on China, which owns of more Treasury bonds than any foreign country.

China responded by saying it would fight any trade war "to the end." When asked by Bloomberg Televisionwhether China was considering scaling back purchases of US debt, China's ambassador to the United States said, "We are looking at all options."

China holds $1.17 trillion of US debt. It trimmed those holdings by 1.4% between December and January, the latest data show.