Danish pension fund to sell $100 million in Treasuries, citing ‘poor’ U.S. government finances

Danish pension operator AcademicianRetirement He said he was exiting U.S. Treasury bonds due to financial concerns as the country sparred with President Donald Trump over calls to take over Greenland.

Anders Schelde, AkademikerPension’s investment chief, said the decision was due to what was considered a “weak” situation. [U.S.] But it also comes as tensions between the US and Denmark escalate following Trump’s latest threats to impose tariffs on European countries if Greenland is not sold to America.

“This has nothing to do with the ongoing conflict between the parties.” [U.S.] “This, of course, did not make the decision any more difficult to make,” Schelde told CNBC.

The fund currently has a position of approximately $100 million in U.S. Treasuries, a spokesperson for AkademikerPension told CNBC. It plans to exit this holding by the end of the month.

Schelde mainly touched on the ballooning debt bill facing the United States after decades of government overspending. The US recorded a budget deficit of $1.78 trillion last year, down just over 2% from fiscal 2024 as Trump’s broad and steep tariffs took effect.

Moody’s Ratings downgraded the United States’ credit rating from Aaa to Aa1 last year, citing the budget deficit and high borrowing costs resulting from high interest rates and debt rollover.

Schelde said the U.S. financial situation “makes us think we need to make an effort to find an alternative way to conduct our liquidity and risk management.” “Now we have found such a way and we are working on it.”

But the move also comes as Denmark has become increasingly hostile towards the United States and Trump has stepped up his appeals to Greenland, a polar island operated by the European country. Trump said over the weekend that if the United States does not gain control of Greenland, he will impose tariffs on many European countries starting February 1, and those duties could rise to 25% on June 1.

European leaders are reportedly considering using counter-tariffs and other punitive economic measures as a result. Some investors worry that European countries could divest U.S. assets in response to Trump’s new tariffs.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Monday that “there will be no pressure” and that “dialogue, respect and international law will be determined.”

Treasury yields in the U.S. and abroad rose on Tuesday; This was a sign that investors were sensing increasing geopolitical turmoil. In a session defined by the “sell America” ​​trade, the US dollar and stocks fell and gold rose to all-time highs.

Sovereign funds may begin to abandon U.S. investments if they stop viewing the U.S. as a stable trading partner, Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio told CNBC on Tuesday.

“On the other side of trade, deficit and trade wars, there are capital and capital wars,” Dalio told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” program at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “If you take conflicts into account, you cannot rule out the possibility of capital wars. In other words, perhaps there is not the same tendency to borrow from the United States.”

Reuters first reported the Danish pension fund’s exit from the Treasury.